The Marshall County Coroner may soon be seeking additional funds.
During Monday morning’s Marshall County Council meeting, Coroner Bill Cleavenger said he wanted to give plenty of notice about his request. He anticipates asking for the money before their next meeting.
Cleavenger says although the Coroner’s office may be saving funds during each autopsy due to a change of forensic pathologists, the dates on which the cases are being billed has created some confusion.
“We got hit for about $12-thousand in March of this year that were actually charges that we had incurred for 2014,” says Cleavenger.
108 cases were handled by the Coroner’s office in 2014. Instead of paying the funds out of 2014 appropriations, they were paid out of 2015’s budget.
According to Cleavenger, the autopsy fund in the Coroner’s office has been depleted. Toxicology and radiology funds are also dwindling. He says there’s a gap in billing times.
“There traditionally has been a lag time of anywhere from three to four months from the time that the autopsy had been performed until the time that we’re actually billed for it,” says Cleavenger.
The Marshall County Council was curious if similar situations could be seen in fiscal year 2016. Cleavenger says there’s no way of making such predictions.
$20-thousand could be requested at the next Marshall County Council meeting.
