Marshall County Coroner John Grolich asked the Marshall County Council Monday morning to consider funding the construction of a county morgue.
For years, Grolich has requested a climate-controlled county morgue in order to store important files and to have adequate space for autopsies. The building will also have enough room and to keep decedents properly housed until they can be processed.
Autopsies are currently conducted in Starke County or other nearby morgues. The coroner uses space at the hospital or other facilities with proper measures to keep decedents awaiting autopsies. A medical examiner from Fishers travels to the area to perform the autopsies.
Grolich explained that the 40-by-64 building would include an area where 10 decedents could be kept in a cool, OSHA-approved, air-circulated room.
“You may say, ‘why a 10-body cooler?’ If you remember in 1999 or 2000, we had six bodies one day in the basement of the hospital. Do I think that will happen every day? I pray not, but we never know. I think we have to build and plan for things that we could be potentially exposed to,” said Grolich.
Marshall County Commission President Kevin Overmyer commented that there are empty buildings around town, but in order to keep the entire process respectfully discreet, the recommendation was to build the county morgue on the southeastern corner of property of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department.
Grolich said the state requirement of autopsies is increasing for certain incidents and that number has exceeded last year’s numbers. Grolich already submitted an additional appropriation request for $25,000 for supplies as he’s gone through all of the funds in his budget. It was approved by the council Monday morning with a unanimous vote.
The commissioners have given verbal support to move forward with the project this year. They are expected to officially vote on it in a public meeting on Monday, June 15. The council members suggested getting some figures put together on what costs will be so they can plan on potentially funding the project out of the Rainy Day Fund. An initial estimate is upwards of $200,000.
