Marshall County Coroner Bill Cleavenger will seek an additional appropriation next from the County Council. He appeared during their meeting Monday morning giving members plenty of notice of his request.
Cleavenger said his autopsy fund is depleted for this year and the toxicology and radiology line items are low.
Last year the coroner had 108 cases, the highest number since he’s been in office. Several autopsies that were conducted in the last quarter of 2014 didn’t get billed to his office until 2015. Cleavenger said, “We got hit for about twelve thousand dollars in March of this year that were actually charges that we had incurred for 2014.” He indicated that it’s typical to have a three to four month lag in autopsy billings.
The coroner said he anticipates seeking a twenty thousand dollar additional at the September meeting.
The Marshall County Coroner is now using autopsy services in Kokomo and also Fort Wayne and both have board certified forensic pathologists. Cleavenger stated that costs for their professional services is about half of what he was being charged in South Bend, between $1,600 and $1,650 while South Bend was charging $3,000. He also indicated the hospitals charge about $300 to $400 for use of their facilities.
When asked by Councilman Steve Harper, “Would consider this year a fluke or will this be reflected in next year’s budget?” Harper wondered if the 2016 budget would reflect an increase for this issue.
Cleavenger said with the reduction in costs with the two new pathologists he hopes to be a little better shape next year but looking back at the records you see that autopsies generally cost the county $20,000 to $22,000 annually.
