Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 31/02) - The snow has long since left the streets of Inuvik, but the gravel from last winter still coats the streets.

The town's street sweeper has changed hands -- again.

Dennis Althouse, Director of Public Services said the town will be doing the street sweeping again this year, since the contractor who did it in previous years has called it quits.

The town used to do the annual sweep, but put the job out to tender two years ago.

"The town sold it at auction a few years ago for $1,000," Althouse said, adding that the previous contractor has become swamped with other work and has no time or staff to run the street sweeper.

"It's not a business that he wants to stay in, so he's proposed that we buy it back from him for what he paid for it and we'll do the sweeping ourselves," Althouse said.

The town is having the sweeper checked over to see what work needs to be done on it, before buying it back.

"I have approval from the public works committee that if the cost of repairs are less than $5,000, to go ahead and purchase the machine, get the repairs done and start sweeping the streets," he said.

"It wasn't put away in ready condition, so we'll have to get it running."

He said the road crews have been out clearing intersections of the heavy gravel with shovels and bobcats and hopes to get the sweeper running as soon as possible.

Althouse said the sweeping normally begins in June, but last year, the contract took almost all summer to complete, because the contractor was so busy.