Opinion by Samuel Strait – May 7, 2022 Yes, I am an opinionated old curmudgeon, when it comes to the County's desire to fund all the County's problems with grants from higher authority. The recent effort through the DC lobbyist, Greg Burns, has netted the attention of Senator Dianne Feinstein to add Del Norte County's jail house woes to a recently resurfaced "ear mark" funding process used to "bring home the bacon" from the federal budget. Nothing like the explosion of federal dollars to stimulate inflation, but that is a discussion for a later date. The recent lobbying effort has landed Del Norte County with a $3.1 million token to fix a County jail that is estimated to take $52 million to correct all its deficiencies. Little short on funding but never fear, as the County with all likelihood can solicit the state for matching funds. The total in my calculations are $6.2 million, still a bit short of the $52 million end game. Do I hear Measure "R" money in the mix? Suffice it to say, that even in the best case fantasy world of Supervisor Chris Howard and Darren Short this may be a bridge too far. Fortunately it does not have to be paid back, if you ignore the idea that some of your income taxes will be paying this bill. So, the County will receive at least $3.1 million dollars, sometime in the future, and is already gearing up with dances of fairy tales for another $3.1 million from the state, not yet granted, with talk of… yes the usual, money to pay for consultants to offer expert advice on "how to spend the money". Looks like a normal way for the local government to proceed, after all got to get to the spending part as quickly as humanly possible. I would guess the only snag in the ointment is that even if the higher amount were to materialize, the only thing the County will accomplish is more lip stick on the pig, and… no real solution to the problems that the jail is currently fielding. Sounds like success? Or more like half measure failure? You Chose. Not to put too fine of a point on the pig's lips, the nearly first thing out of CAO Neal Lopez's mouth was the "need" for a specialist to tell us, meaning the Board of Supervisors, what to do with the money. Apparently it hasn't risen to the level of consciousness that the funding is woefully inadequate. No surprise there. There hasn't been much in the way of critical thinking displayed by the BOS for some time, so why change now? All the Feds and the State need to do is toss us a few scraps now and then, and local government sits up in supplication, salivating over the next scrap likely a further ten years down the time line in Sacramento, longer from DC. Seems like everywhere you go, the Board and its hired bureaucracy produce disappointments with increasing regularity. As much as District Three's Supervisor Chris Howard likes to paint a rosy picture for the future of Del Norte County, it does not appear to be materializing. Decisions to go after "grant funding" may seem like an added layer of shine on the pig, but the pig stubbornly remains gobbling up local resources without the "light at the end of the tunnel". So, Yay, we will shortly have an "expert document" to be produced by a "specialist" that will support any and all decisions by the Board to spend a grant from the Federal government to "fix" the County's jail. Did you get all that? The final bit in the whole fiasco, is the "concern" the BOS has for the proper treatment of its Incompetent to stand trial incarcerated that will be unlikely to be addressed by the funding. The convoluted twitching by the BOS over conditions currently exposed at the jail, are hardly going to be contained within the "expert's report" and remain unsolved. As with the renovation of the jail, just another problem to be swept up in the mounting issues faced by County Government for the future if ever. Bravo BOS, on to the next issue….