Morgue, election storage top to-do list for new county supervisors

THOMAS HOWARD |, The Meridian Star, Miss.
Updated ·4 min read

Dec. 18—The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors will see two new faces next month, and the list of county business needing attention is already growing.

Supervisors elect J.J. Anders and Craig Houston are set to be sworn in as representatives of districts 1 and 2 respectively along with other county officials on Dec. 31. The two newly elected leaders will have to learn quickly as the county irons out wrinkles in the move to a new facility and county offices adjust to new faces.

The retirement of Clayton Cobler as coroner, who also served as executive director for Metro Ambulance, has brought up a potential relocation of the county morgue and the cost associated with maintaining it. Additionally, the county's five election commissioners are hoping to find a solution to a lack of secure storage space in the new Lauderdale County Government Center for voting machines and equipment.

The Morgue

In a meeting Monday, T.J. Irby, office manager at Metro Ambulance, said the county morgue has been located at Metro's complex in downtown Meridian for years. The location made sense as Cobler, serving as both coroner and executive director of Metro Ambulance Service, needed quick and convenient access.

For as long as the morgue has been there, Irby said, Metro has covered the associated costs, including the insurance, utilities, security costs and more. Now, with Cobler retiring and a new coroner taking over, the location of the morgue is once again in question, he said.

Should the morgue remain at Metro, Irby said the company would like to be reimbursed for some of the added costs.

County Administrator Chris Lafferty said the morgue is one of several topics under discussion with incoming coroner Stella McMahan. In a work session Thursday, he told Supervisors Wayman Newell and Kyle Rutledge he and McMahan had also discussed new vehicles for the coroner's office, the number of deputy coroner positions and more.

Lafferty said Monday that supervisors need to have a longer discussion in a future work session about the morgue and other requests from the coroners office. He asked Irby to give the board a month to try to come up with a plan.

Irby said his appearance before the board Monday was to begin the conversation, and he was happy to give the board time to find a solution.

Election Storage

In other business, supervisors heard from election commissioners who are still looking for secure storage for the county's voting equipment.

Election Commissioner Gloria Dancy previously spoke to the board about storage on Dec. 4, and the board agreed to tour a few potential spaces with the commissioners. On Monday, however, Dancy said the spaces it had seen were either not sufficient or otherwise claimed.

"We're still looking for space to store our equipment and supplies," she said.

Lauderdale County has a voting machine for each of its 37 precincts, with an additional 15 machines for counting absentee ballots, backups and, if needed, spare parts.

In addition to the ballot scanning machines, there are also express voting machines, which are designed to help people with disabilities that would keep them from filling out a paper ballot, secure transfer boxes to transport ballots to the courthouse for counting, signage and more.

"We barely have enough space here in our office to store what we have in our office downtown," Dancy said.

In addition to the office space at the old courthouse, the election commission used part of the vault in the circuit clerk's office for storage, as well as an unused floor of the Raymond P. Davis Annex.

In addition to having space, the commission also needs to be sure that space is secure, Commissioner Awana Simmons said.

"If we move into it, it has to be that we only have access to it," she said.

Several potential storage spaces have been proposed, including an upstairs area in the government center and the commission's office space in the old courthouse, among others. The spaces deemed acceptable by the commission, however, have already been claimed by other departments.

After hearing from the election commissioners, supervisors voted to table the issue until the new board was seated. Supervisor Joe Norwood, who will continue to represent District 4, said he believes a greater conversation needs to be had about how the county utilizes the available space. Other departments are have similar concerns, he said.

Contact Thomas Howard at thoward@themeridianstar.com