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Mahoning commissioners OK morgue ventilation upgrade
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners awarded a $534,000 contract for morgue ventilation improvement at Oakhill Renaissance Place to York-Mahoning Mechanical Contractors Inc.
Poor ventilation there has caused the coroner’s office to try to schedule autopsies on badly decomposed bodies late in the day to reduce odor problems in the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, which is now a county office complex.
Dr. David Kennedy, county coroner, said Friday the ventilation improvement work will ideally be performed before the county hires a new forensic pathologist and resumes performing autopsies at Oakhill.
The work will include installation of a ventilation system that meets current codes, closing off the walls and ceiling space in the basement autopsy room, and installation of a new autopsy table, new lighting, a new laundry facility, an ionization system and a portable air-purification unit, and new evidence storage, specimen and drying rooms.
The illness and untimely death last month of Dr. Joseph Ohr, the county’s forensic pathologist, has forced the county to send bodies to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office in Cleveland for autopsies.
In other action, the commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with Youngstown for joint construction and management of the Meridian Road resurfacing and rehabilitation project, including concrete interchange repairs. The county’s share of the agreement is estimated at $837,500.
The commissioners also approved a $21,575 agreement with Bowman Appraisal Review Services Inc. of Alliance for right-of-way appraisal review services for the widening of Western Reserve Road between Hitchcock Road and Market Street.
They also approved a $20,000 agreement with Popa Consulting LLC of North Canton for fracture-critical bridge inspection services.
A fracture-critical bridge is one in which the failure of a single steel structural support would likely cause the bridge, or a portion thereof, to collapse.
There are about 18,000 fracture-critical bridges in the United States.