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Officials consider moving coroner’s office after odor complaints
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County officials are considering potential new locations for the county coroner’s office.
The subject arose during a discussion of morgue ventilation improvements at Oakhill Renaissance Place, where other building occupants have complained of odors emanating from the morgue when badly decomposed bodies are brought there.
The discussion occurred Thursday during a county commissioners’ staff meeting with Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist and deputy coroner, and architect Tracie Kaglic.
County officials are considering moving the coroner’s office from Oakhill, either to the Industrial Road site of the existing county dog pound after the pound moves away a year from now, or building a new, freestanding building for the coroner’s office on the 11-acre Meridian Road site, where the new dog-shelter building will be built.
The Oakhill facility is “an old hospital morgue” with 1970s-vintage equipment, Dr. Ohr noted.
“It would be an absolute dream to have a new, modern facility” in a stand-alone building occupied only by the coroner’s office, if money is available for it, he said.
Such a building would offer more privacy and dignity for the deceased and their families, better preparedness for mass disasters, improved isolation of potential biohazards and a modern ventilation system, he explained.
Dr. Ohr said he doesn’t yet have enough information to say whether the Industrial Road site or the Meridian Road location would better meet his needs.
However, if Industrial Road is chosen, he said he’d want the dog pound building demolished and a new coroner’s building built on that site.
Dr. Ohr said he would want to avoid any offense caused by that building’s reputation as a dog pound if the site would be reused for the coroner’s office.
Anthony Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners, said the Industrial Road site offers the advantage of proximity to the county’s emergency-management agency office across the road for emergency coordination in the event of a mass-casualty disaster.
Traficanti estimated a new coroner’s building might cost between $3 million and $4 million and said the county could borrow money for it in the bond market.
However, in the short term, he said he believes morgue ventilation needs to be improved at Oakhill, where such upgrades are expected to cost about $300,000.
Besides the idea of using the current dog-pound site for the coroner’s office, Traficanti said the commissioners have considered transferring that site to the nearby county engineer’s office.
“These are just preliminary discussions,” Traficanti said. “There has been no decision made” about moving the coroner’s office or transferring the Industrial Road dog-pound site to the county engineer’s office.
Commissioner David Ditzler said he and his colleagues need to consider whether it’s desirable to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve Oakhill’s morgue ventilation if a new coroner’s building will be built where land already is available.
County officials need to consider whether the Industrial Road or Meridian Road site is more feasible and economical for a new coroner’s facility, he said.
“They both have good accessibility,” Ditzler observed.
Industrial Road has the advantage of proximity to the EMA office, but Meridian Road has the advantage of direct freeway access, he observed.
“It’s just all in the exploratory stages,” he concluded.