By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – January 21, 2022 One now would have had to have been in a progressive vacuum chamber not to know that a volcano erupted near Tonga, a tiny island group in the South Pacific, 5400 miles away from the West Coast of the United States and generated a Tsunami. It was almost immediately known that the generated waves would be of little concern for us here on the North Coast. In an effort to be relevant; however, our esteemed Lord Neal Lopez, the County's Chief Administrative Officer leaped from his bed at a bit after 4:00 am to instruct his deputy directer to activate the County's emergency operations center. Perhaps most of the County was unaware that such a place even existed, being it has been used "so" often. It appears that Del Norte County has been "without" a director of emergency services for four months. Must be a real useful position to have at between $70,000 and $80,000 per year for all the "emergencies" that we have around here. Maybe such a person would have been able to "push the right button" if we had a "real" emergency to attend. Seems that Lord Lopez's assistant pushed the wrong one. While a portion of the County was apprised of the impending disaster about to fall on Del Norte County, waves of 1 to 2 feet at high tide, the rest of the County was informed about the time that the "emergency" was pretty much over. Just think of all that Japanese Sister City Education money flushed down the toilet. In the stumbling, bumbling effort to inform us of a real "yawner" of an emergency, we learned how important the lack of an office of Emergency Services, and its director, and its emergency coordinator (to be hired with Measure "R" money), at likely enormous expense for all the "emergencies" that we have around here. This begs the question of what so ever did we do before we had all this absurd over kill of bureaucracy? We were also delighted to learn that the County and City have an operations division, a finance division, a logistics division, and a management division, what more can a County of 27,000 residents possibly wish for? Maybe at least one of the managers of said divisions can be prevailed upon to press the "correct" button in times of emergencies? Probably not, when the "brain trust" at the CAO's office can't manage that simple task. Government out of control, that needs to be slimmed down as soon as possible! In an era of burdensome taxation in this County, coupled with two years of nanny state response to Covid, a failing public school system, burdensome regulation, and an unresponsive government to control spending, what better scenario for the repeal of both Measures "S" and "R". It is past time to send a clear message to our "Lords" that a clean house wind is blowing in Del Norte County…..