Yellowknife (Aug 02/06) - You may have seen her set up at intersections up and down Franklin Ave., comfy in a lawn chair, soaking in the sun, but with a very important task at hand.

Leslie Merrithew, city summer employee with the Department of Public Works, has been charged with counting cars and pedestrians at major intersections this summer. The plan; to take the information and adjust traffic lights to ensure a better flow of traffic in and out of the downtown core.

"A lot of people think I control the lights with this thing," she said showing off a blue box used to record traffic volume. "If it were I'd have a heyday and it could be pretty funny."

But seriously, Merrithew's data will allow public works to help drivers get in and out of downtown faster during morning and evening rush hours.

"We've installed new controllers for all our (street) lights and are using these counts to determine the best way to organize the system," said Dennis Kefalas, manager of Public Works for the city.

Back to the corner of Franklin Ave and 50th St. where Merrithew was soaking up the sun and counting away Friday afternoon.

So do you get any strange comments?

"Almost every second person comes by and either says 'whoa, nice job can I trade you?' or 'nice way to get a tan', which is true," she said. "It gets pretty generic after a while."

Well, as long as Merrithew's work will help commuters get in and out of town faster, as far as this reporter's concerned, she can keep working on that tan!