HERMANN — Gasconade County Health Department personnel will play a key role in the upcoming 3-day drill involving Hermann Middle School, the designated county reception center for residents affected by a hazardous incident at the Ameren Callaway Energy Center.

During the drill that will be observed by Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel from Washington, D.C., as well as State Emergency Management Agency officials, the health agency staff will have to work the drill into an already busy schedule, said Administrator Kenna Fricke during Monday morning’s monthly session of the Health Department Board of Trustees. Fricke explained that health agency staff would be performing radiation cleanup duties for those coming into the reception center at Hermann Middle School.

The exercise, which takes place about once every 10 years, is scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 7, 8 and 9, and is designed to test the effectiveness of the reception center. The school’s gym is the designated reception center to house residents relocated away from the effects of the release of radioactive materials from the energy center.

Gasconade County is within the radiation zone of the nuclear power plant, along with Callaway, Montgomery and Osage counties. Gasconade County’s Emergency Operations Center regularly draws high marks from federal and state observers for the drills it conducts involving a variety of emergency service agencies that would be pressed into action in the event of an incident at the power plant.

The Health Department’s Doug Clark is the agency’s emergency planner and most likely will be one of at least four department staffers expected to be assigned to the reception center drill, Fricke said. She said staffers would be in the roles of radiation officer and radiation coordinator. Staff members will be involved in such activities as washing down those coming into the center, making the exercise as real as possible.

“It’ll be a full-scale” operation, Fricke said. “It’s going to be a lot to do, but we’ll learn a lot,” she added.

But, Fricke told the four trustees attending the session, the drill will only be one of the many activities the agency will be involved in this summer.\

“It’s another thing we’re working on,” she said, noting that activity is increasing in such areas as outreach projects, participation in the Womens, Infants & Children’s (WIC) program and the ongoing environmental and sanitation inspection programs that demands much of Clark’s time.

Considering that, and the possibility of other staff changes within the department, Fricke said she is considering reallocation of duties of the staff.

“I do fear that we’re going to be losing one of our nurses,” she said. And then there is the increasing demand on Clark’s time to perform routine inspections, some of which still are being conducted jointly by him and a state health agency representative.

“I do think we need help in environmental” services, Fricke said, referring to the inspections of restaurants, child daycare operations and other places that serve food. There’s also a matter of being able to respond to complaints that come into the Health Department.

Indeed, Fricke told the board, “Doug is out the door today” following up on a complaint, one of many that has been keeping him busy recently. “He’s just putting out fires,” Fricke said, lamenting that Clark is not being able to spend more time on regular inspections.

Just prior to the 3-day drill at HMS, Health Department personnel will be spending their days at the Gasconade County Fair in Owensville. With Owensville Area Ambulance District stepping back, the Health Department was asked by Fair Board officials to provide basic health services to fairgoers. Fricke earlier said the agency would operate a cooling station and provide basic First-Aid service. Anything more serious would require the local EMS personnel, she said.

“We’ll have some basic supplies, but any emergencies the expectation is that they call 9-1-1,” Fricke said.