By Samuel Strait, Report at Large – February 19, 2021 Unless someone has blown out your pilot light, most folks in the County are aware of the fact that Last Chance Grade has had yet another slide blocking the traffic North and South. Due to some rather heavy rains, it should have come as no surprise, yet it seems like an annual event. Naturally it will be a few hours before Cal Trans will be able to open at least one lane, with the warning that delays are expected to be up to an hour, and weather condition may require the road to be closed going forward. A couple of hours delay, frustrating but survivable. A day or two not real great, but better than if the roadway would slide into the ocean and become impassable. Last Chance Grade has been an issue for Del Norte County for over sixty years, and likely will remain so long after 2039. When then Supervisor Lori Cowan became point person regarding Last Chance Grade, we were assured that a solution would be only a matter of twenty years or so. These pronouncements were dutifully echoed by our State Senator Mark McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Woods. And then the flood gates of "studies" were opened costing millions of dollars and likely to be objected to by our local environazies leading to years of court room litigation. Of course, since it will be some time before a route is even settled and the state has billions of dollars of unfunded road repair and construction for which they only have less than half of that amount, chances are it will be well into the next century before something concrete is done. Not to worry, the road way has a better chance of falling into the ocean before Last Chance Grade is bypassed. In the mean time our local Board of Supervisors and City Council continues to sit on their hands, thinking the State will honor that pledge and if the roadway holds up for the next twenty years everything will be golden. Besides, most of the current Board and Council are unlikely to be around to take the fall. So where does that leave us, the people who live here. Clearly without so much as a paddle, as the federal government is the only real option to get something done in a timely manner. A suggestion authored by Bob Berkowitz and former Supervisor Roger Gitlin that has been roundly dismissed when it was brought up previously, by current sitting board members Chris Howard and Gerry Hemmingsen. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the only immediate solution has lain fallow since. A few more rain filled winters and this current problem of short delays has the distinct possibility of a very long delay. Perhaps in light of serious movement of the hill above the Grade, the clock is ticking. Further delay at finding a real solution to the problem will only make the problem grow not only in difficulty but cost as well. Time for better local government without delay. Time to speed up the fix at Last Chance Grade.