Some small towns opt to buy terrorism insurance

— -- Small rural and suburban communities — some with few structures taller than a good-sized maple tree — might be unlikely targets for terrorists, but many of them are protecting their police stations and water towers with terrorism insurance.

The extra coverage is relatively inexpensive — for a small village it can amount to less than $100 a year — and in many cases it's a standard feature of government insurance pools. But some question whether it is necessary.

In April, leaders of West Baraboo, a Wisconsin village of 1,200, debated whether to purchase terrorism coverage.

"If terrorists got this far into the country, there wouldn't be anyone to make the claim anyway," said village clerk Mary Klingenmeyer. But the village board voted 5-2 to pay $87 annually for the coverage.

"We had quite a few outlying areas laughing at us," Klingenmeyer said. "Maybe we'll have the last laugh."

James Hamilton, director of pooling programs at the National League of Cities Risk Information Sharing Consortium, said terrorism coverage is a common feature among the league's 34 affiliated state insurance pool programs, which cover nearly 16,000 towns, cities and schools.

"Even though the chance (of a terrorist attack) may be very minute … if something were to happen, they don't want to be caught without protection," Hamilton said. The town of Plainfield, Ind., population about 24,000, decided that its proximity to a major highway, an airport and a rail system made coverage worth the extra $1,700 a year, said clerk Wesley Bennett.

"For $150 a month we felt it was appropriate to get that kind of coverage for the amount of assets we have," Bennett said.

Wisconsin offers coverage in pool policies

The state of Wisconsin's Local Government Property Insurance Fund provides terrorism coverage at no extra charge in its pool insurance policies, which cover more than 1,100 Wisconsin public entities, according to Eileen Mallow, Wisconsin's assistant deputy commissioner of insurance. The insured include small villages such as Endeavor, Wis., population 440. West Baraboo is not part of the state pool. According to Klingenmeyer, the town opted to get its insurance through a local agency.