HERMANN — A quick review of insurance coverage found the Gasconade County Health Department without coverage for damage from an earthquake — a risk that the agency’s Board of Trustees didn’t want to run any longer.

“Oh, yes, that’s necessary,” said Board President Stan Hall during Monday morning’s regular monthly session to Administrator Kenna Fricke, who alerted the trustees to the lack of earthquake coverage in its insurance package. Fricke noted that the agency’s regularly scheduled solicitation of insurance coverage bids isn’t due for another year; she asked if she should pursue earthquake coverage now or wait until it’s time to renew coverage.

“I don’t think we should wait a year,” Hall said. “I think we should get that done.”

The other three trustees attending the meeting conducted via ZOOM agreed with moving quickly to add earthquake coverage.

Hall noted that Gasconade County is “on the edge” of the New Madrid Fault, one of the most active faults in the nation that runs from northern Arkansas along the Mississippi River through Missouri’s Bootheel to near Metro St. Louis. Geology experts long have said it’s a matter of when and not if there will be another major shake that could cause catastrophic damage along the fault. Small tremors occur regularly, many too small to be felt across a wide area, but during the past year there have been reports of larger quakes along the fault, several in the Bootheel.

There’s a concern within Metro St. Louis that the bridges leading out of the populous area will be severely damaged by a major quake, preventing residents from leaving to the south, north and east. That leaves a western exit and there’s only one road leading out of Metro St. Louis that doesn’t cross a bridge — Highway 100.

Fricke said she would contact their insurance agent to obtain earthquake coverage.

Also April 24, the administrator applauded staffer Doug Clark, the retired chief of the Hermann Ambulance District who recently joined the department as a part-time worker. He quickly became full-time with the departure of the agency’s environmental specialist and health inspector. Clark also took on the role as the agency’s emergency planner and last week attended his first Gasconade County emergency plan drill in his new role with the Health Department.

Fricke said she would have represented the agency also at the drill but that a family trip out of state had been scheduled before the drill was scheduled.

The department’s policy book will be updated to reflect the trustees’ appointment of Fricke as the number-one custodian of records and Administrative Assistant Carla Schutt as the alternate in that role. The change came after a recent Sunshine Law workshop and training session for public agency personnel.

Fricke said the event focused on agencies following the best practices for meeting the requirements of the state’s Open Meetings & Records Law, commonly referred to as the Sunshine Law. In addition to formally naming a custodian of records, who is responsible for responding to Sunshine Law requests for agency documents, Fricke said a change has been made to how the trustees’ meeting agendas are posted for the public. Now, the agenda is posted on a front window and visible from the sidewalk.

Also, because the board has been meeting via ZOOM since the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the agenda has been modified to include the online link to connect to the board meeting.