Mohave County’s efforts to centralize its medical examiner services will be more expensive than originally thought due to rising construction and equipment costs.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss raising the project budget in its meeting next week.
Having brought medical examiner services in-house in 2021, the plan is to overhaul an existing traffic control building in Kingman. Mohave County Medical Examiner John Hassett currently provides services through his private funeral home in Fort Mohave, with pathologist consulting provided by a former County ME.
The County set aside nearly $4M in the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget to build a new morgue facility in the traffic control building, but construction and equipment costs have since increased to an estimated $5.64M.
The Board will vote next week on whether to authorize another $2M from contingency funds to complete the project.
The project will renovate the 4.8KSF building and will include equipment for laboratory, autopsy and cold room operations, which is expected to cost approximately $1M.
Physical components of the redevelopment include a drive-through sally port, fiber optic connections, and improvements to the curb and sidewalks. (Source: Today’s News-Herald)
