It’s been seven years and 60 false alarms since the “new” County Government Center opened and finally, San Luis Obispo County supervisors have decided to — sigh — just give up and replace the doggone alarm system, to the tune of $513,000.

We suppose that’s better than continuing to waste tens of thousands of dollars in lost staff time whenever there’s a false alarm during business hours. (So far, 13 of the 60 false alarms occurred when work was in session, leading to evacuations that cost an estimated $163,000.)

On the other hand, we wouldn’t want the county to simply ignore the problem, either. We don’t want any modern retellings of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, with county staffers growing increasingly complacent every time the system dings or beeps or blows a horn or whatever it does, until the fateful day when there really is an emergency and it’s too late to keep the wolves at bay.

So again, supervisors had little choice, but it’s galling that taxpayers are footing the bill for a $513,000 replacement system.

The county counsel’s office is negotiating with Kajima Construction, the main contractor on the government center, and hopes to get that sum reimbursed. Kajima, meanwhile, has filed countersuits against many of its subcontractors.

While we’re waiting for that cloud of legal dust to settle, we’ll practice sounding the alarm — The brickbats are coming! The brickbats are coming! — for those parties found to be at fault for sticking the county with a lemon of a warning system.

Students lend hands to Sunny Acres

In an impressive example of learn-by-doing, Cal Poly students are pitching in to clean up Dan De Vaul’s Sunny Acres property. The students in Roya Javadpour’s industrial and manufacturing engineering class will spend the academic quarter on the project. They plan to clean up the De Vaul property and also hope to bring some of the buildings up to code.

De Vaul, who has operated a sober living shelter at his Los Osos Valley Road property for years, has run afoul of county officials numerous times for various code violations. Cal Poly students are doing him, his clients and the entire community a huge service by improving the ranch — and that earns them top-of-the-class bouquets.

SLO’s surfing dog seen safely home

It’s not every day you see a surfing dog, let alone own one, so imagine San Luis Obispo resident Kat Yeung’s dismay when her golden retriever Saint went missing last week. Saint has been featured in The Tribune as quite the talented pup: He is frequently seen in local waters surfing with Yeung.

But possibly because of loud construction noises or the wind, Saint ran away from his home near Tank Farm Road and Broad Street last week. Yeung and her friends looked for the clever canine and put up signs. Two days later, she received a call from employees at MindBody who said they saw Saint. When Yeung called out for the pooch, he recognized her and bounded right up for a happy reunion.

We raise a bouquet of doggy treats to Saint, and a big bunch of dogwood blossoms to those who assisted.

Editorials are the opinion of The Tribune.