Allen County Counselor Alan Weber will seek bids for transport of bodies for autopsies.
The decision came during a short commission session Tuesday morning.
Ron Ballard, deputy coroner, owns a service, Quality Care, which came under discussion a week ago when commissioners questioned if his dual duties — pronouncing deaths and then transporting bodies — were a conflict of interests.
His firm and First Call, based in Fredonia, will be asked to bid. Commissioners mentioned transportation costs — to and from Frontier Forensics, Kansas City, Kan. — had been $550 per case with Quality Care, while First Call’s charge is reputed to be $250.
All costs associated with an autopsy, in an unattended death or one of questionable circumstances, are paid by the county, through a budget line item set aside for coroner expenses. Sheriff Bryan Murphy said cost for transport and autopsy usually was about $3,500 per case.
Murphy said an “unattended” death is usually “when a person may have a physician, but isn’t being treated for the apparent cause of death.”
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