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Lawrence County Needs A Morgue

Last updated on Wednesday, April 11, 2012

(BEDFORD) - Lawrence County Coroner John Sherrill told the commissioners that the county will need to find a morgue.

Currently the county is using the morgue at IU Health Bedford Hospital, but they have asked the county to find somewhere else to take the counties deceased.

The hospital says their facility is not equipped to deal with the odors from some of the bodies brought to the morgue.

St. Vincent Dunn Hospital no longer has a morgue, so the county will either have to build a facility or come to an agreement with an out of county agency.

Sherill told the commissioners it will be cheaper if the county builds a facility and charges other counties to use it, then to take the deceased to another facility.

Sherrill is in the process of getting estimates to converting a portion of a county owned building, located behind Dr. Craton's office in Dunn Plaza, into a morgue. Once he gets that done, he will give those figures to the commissioners. He estimates the cost to build a morgue to be no more than $50,000.

In other business:

* The highway department continues to cut brush, dig culverts and ditches and are beginning to pave some of the counties roads.

"We really need to address that issue," says Commission Bill Spreen. "We are losing ground and have to do something to get a handle on this."

Spreen would like to see the county drag and level some of the county roads and then chip and seal them. Spreen believes that would allow the county to improve more roads and get a handle on the situation.

Spreen says the county continue to gets behind on road repairs because there is just not enough money to take care of the problem and the county needs to find a cheaper solution.

Highway Superintended David Holmes is going to look into pricing and get back to the commissioners.

* Lawrence County Sheriff Sam Craig says the jail had 108 inmates, with 17 being females and 11 Department of Correction inmates. He also told the commissioners he was applying for a $10,000 grant. If the grant is awarded to the county Craig will spend it to update video equipment in police cruisers.

* Lawrence County Community Corrections Director Joe Dibert asked for permission to apply for a $10,000 grant for the problem solving court.

* The commissioners adopted a resolution to vacate property in Leatherwood Addition.
Repairs on bridge 20 on old Ind. 37 in the Needmore area should be complete by the beginning of May. Work on Williams Covered Bridge should begin soon. Highway Projects Supervisor Bob Dillon says contractors are just waiting on word from the state so they can begin.

* The commissioners signed a lease agreement with Pitney Boes for a mailing machine. The contract was for $379 a month the same as the old contract.

* Rob Vollrath, of Perfection Group asked the commissioners permission to allow his company to do a green building initiative by doing a utility bill analyzes of the counties utilities. The commissioners took his information to review.

* Lorinda Youngcourt, chief of the Lawrence County Public Defender Agency, presented estimates for improvements to the officer next to hers at Dunn Plaza. The commissioners approved the estimates and they will now be passed on to the county council for approval.

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