jacksonville, florida – The city of Jacksonville broke ground on Monday to build a new multimillion-dollar medical examiner’s office.
The new facility, which will be significantly larger than the current facility, will be located on North Davis Street near Interstate 95 and Golf Air in the Brentwood area.
The current Medical Examiner’s Office, built about 60 years ago in 1968, is having trouble finding space, and News4JAX I-TEAM has covered this situation for many years.
We learned of an internal email in 2017 from former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Valerie Rao. She said her space was sorely lacking and she had to put one body on the floor. This space shortage came as drug overdoses surged across the region.
A few years later, in 2020, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) compounded the problem. A trailer was brought to the site for additional office space, and a cooler was installed to dispose of the bodies.
The city now plans to spend more than $62 million to build a new coroner’s office, which is expected to be completed by the winter of 2025.
Instead of having a maximum capacity of 100 bodies, the new site can accommodate up to 300 bodies.
City representatives and the chief medical examiner unveiled a rendering of the new facility at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday.
The building will have an area of approximately 51,000 square feet and will be two stories tall.
Tim Crutchfield, director of operations for the 4th District Coroner’s Office, said unlike the current facility, the new facility has the ability to grow and expand with the community.
“This facility is capable of dealing with a rapidly increasing number of fatalities, so we can quickly increase the number of fatalities to 300 if necessary,” said a person who has worked at the office since 2016. said Mr Crutchfield. “The facility is designed to accommodate medical staff and even an increase in medical staff.”
The specific location of the new office was chosen to save taxpayers a few bucks, the leaders said.
“The city actually owns this land,” said Mr Crutchfield. “So if this property actually meets our needs, there is absolutely no need to look elsewhere.”
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