St. Joseph County will soon have space for a dedicated county morgue.
Right now, the coroner’s office doesn’t have a place to store bodies long-term or to allow next of kin to identify the deceased.
The office currently stores bodies in a cooler at the cemetery and transfers them to a funeral home for viewings. There’s also no place to isolate potentially infectious bodies or to allow staff to decontaminate.
“None of this can be provided in the current offices on the fourth floor of [the County-City Building], not just due to its location, but for the size of it,” project manager John Butler told the county commissioners on May 4.
Earlier this year, the county council set aside $380,000 in American Rescue Plan funding for a dedicated morgue — $200,000 to purchase a building, $118,000 to pay for facility improvements and $62,000 to buy new equipment.
On Tuesday, the county board of commissioners approved the purchase of a former chiropractor office at 1622 E. Mishawaka Ave. for $186,000.
“We are looking forward to being able to purchase that building,” County Coroner Dr. Patricia Jordan said at the meeting. “We were able to come in under our budget… so we will plan to use some of that money to enclose the back of the building.”
Some neighbors in the area, however, have expressed concern about living down the street from a morgue. Pam Claeys asked that the commissioners’ decision be tabled until after a neighborhood meeting with Jordan next week.
“As you can imagine, our neighborhood is freaking out at the idea of a morgue,” she said. “We met with Dr. Jordan… and she understands that our neighbors — some have questions about chemicals and traffic and what it’s going to look like.”
Jordan said she was committed to answering neighbors’ questions, but that her office has lost bids on three buildings already and needs to move quickly.
“We are committed to not disrupt the neighborhood,” she said. “We have very little expectations of any disruption there.”
The commissioners ultimately approved the purchase in a unanimous vote.
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo.
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