St. Joseph County to get its own morgue

by Mark Schirripa (mschirripa@wsbt.com)

Tools

Story Created: Aug 20, 2008 at 4:36 PM EST

Story Updated: Aug 20, 2008 at 5:42 PM EST

ST. JOSEPH CO. — St. Joseph County commissioners and council members spent the day working on the upcoming budget. One of the big items on the "needs list" is a county morgue.

Multimedia

Watch The Video

County Commissioner Mark Dobson says the county will have its own morgue by early next year at the latest.

The county is currently using the two South Bend hospitals as autopsy sites, but they're running out of space and want the county to move the autopsies elsewhere.

If there's no room at the South Bend hospitals, the body has to be transported to Fort Wayne. That costs the county an extra $1,500.

"It has to be done,” Dobson said. “The size of the community that we're in and the number of autopsies that happen in St. Joe County, we'll absolutely have to have a morgue. It's our intention to have one open by the first quarter of 2009. We think we can even have it open by the end of this year."

One county official told us privately that there's another issue involved. He said the hospitals are just tired of dealing with decomposing bodies. If the plans go forward as scheduled, that will be a thing of the past.

The county could build its own morgue or buy one of several local funeral homes and move there. A new building would probably be built near the airport.

More Good Stuff

WSBT Weather

Current Temp 45.5

More Weather

WSBT Weather

More Weather

On Demand

iPhone
Get the WSBT News and Irish Sports Report apps for your iPhone! Read more »
On DVD
Order a DVD of a WSBT news story! Read more »
Twitter
Follow us on Twitter! Read more »
Facebook
Connect with us on Facebook! Read more »
WSBT E-News
Daily StormTracker e-mails right to your Inbox! Read more »
Video On Demand
Miss a story on WSBT News? Watch it here! Read more »
CBS Shows
Watch CBS shows and news online, free! Read more »
WSBT Alert
Breaking News & Weather right to your cell phone! Read more »
Mobile
WSBT News on the go for your cell phone or PDA. Read more »
RSS Feeds
Get news and updates as soon as they're published. Read more »

Stock Quotes

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.