HERMANN — The last week of March was not kind to Gasconade County Health Department Administrator Kenna Fricke.

Notified that the federal government was scrapping all remaining COVID-era grant money provided by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (DCD), which was being used for a variety of public health projects, Fricke now has another set of worries: How to ensure the agency’s soon-to-be new home will indeed be a “dream space” and not turn into a nightmare of change orders sparked by the loss of the grant dollars.

On top of that, the agency chief also is trying to determine the best way to dispose of the existing office building, located at 300 Schiller Street — sell through a sealed-bid process or through auction? Oh, yes, and prepare to spend more time away from her administrator’s desk and, as a registered nurse, spend more time out in the community personally providing service to county residents as away to deal with limited staffing.

Fricke indeed is facing a full plate as Spring begins to take hold.

“It’s exhausting to think about,” she told the department’s Board of Trustees at its regular monthly session on March 31.

Despite the hurdles, the administrator is trying to see the sun through all the clouds. “I’m trying to talk myself into being optimistic,” she said.

As for relocating to the agency’s new home — the former Southwest Medical Associates clinic building across the street from Hermann Area District Hospital — Fricke and the trustees are wondering what changes will need to be made in the wake of the loss of the CDC grant money.

“We truly have a dream space” at the new location, she said.

Remodeling is now taking place, she said, with contractors on pace.

“Right now, they’re pretty well on the timeline,” she said. Agency officials hope to have the new site ready by July.

But with almost $200,000 in just one of the CDC grants yanked by the federal government no longer available, it becomes a question of just how much the plans originally presented to the contractors might have to be altered. A chunk of that grant funding was scheduled to outfit the building’s laboratory, as well as purchase new audio-visual equipment and other items for the building.

Board President Stan Hall said he hoped changes to the original remodeling plan could be kept to a minimum, noting that change orders usually mean higher costs for a project,

Fricke pointed out that one piece of equipment on the CDC grant To-Buy list is a generator that, in the event of a power failure, would allow the operation of coolers needed for the storage of vaccines.

With the agency estimating to use $48,000 of grant money for a new generator, Fricke now goes back to researching the best deal out there.

“We thought we had it covered. And now it’s not,” she told the board.

Beginning another effort to find the best bargain on a generator will further delay the arrival of a unit.

“It’s going to take a while to get the generator here,” she said, noting that there is a projected eight-week wait for a unit to be delivered.

Fricke explained that she had hoped a new generator would allow the agency to serve as a back-up command center for the county’s Emergency Operations Center in the event of a major disaster.

As for transferring the existing Schiller Street office building to new owners, the board authorized the administrator to research the most advantageous way of selling the property. Fricke said she wasn’t sure if would be better to seek sealed bids or dispose of it through an auction.

Whichever way is determined as being the best, a decision might not be long in coming, she hinted. Because of the loss of CDC money and with contractors on schedule at the new building, she said she “feels it’s a little more urgent” to resolve the sale of the existing building.