County to start work on morgue

The old animal shelter on Mathis Road will house a cooler, a viewing room and administrative offices.

Crews will start converting the old animal shelter into Floyd County’s first morgue, following the informal approval of elected officials Tuesday.

“If we had a coroner who wasn’t a funeral director, we’d have had to build one already,” County Manager Jamie McCord said.

Bodies awaiting identification or transfer are held at Floyd Medical Center or at Coroner Barry Henderson’s funeral home. However, officials at the city/county Joint Services Committee meeting noted that FMC’s morgue is at capacity.

“The hospital might keep them longer, if they’re trying to find their family or someone to claim them,” County

Commission Chair Rhonda Wallace explained.

The county has already purchased a cooler to store up to six bodies, and workers have gutted and cleaned the old shelter on Mathis Road. Plans are to add a viewing room for families and two administrative offices. McCord said autopsies would still be performed at the GBI Crime Lab.

Under a 1988 agreement, the 2-acre tract reverted to city control when the new animal shelter opened on North Avenue. The Rome City and Floyd County commissions are expected to finalize within a month a revised agreement that allows the county to run a morgue there.

“It’s a good use of the space, and I can’t see anything else going there,” McCord said. “The location’s a little far from town, but everything else is perfect.”

The Joint Services Committee typically meets quarterly to hash out shared projects and activities. It’s made up of the Rome mayor and a city commissioner, the county commission chair and a county commissioner, the city and county managers and their assistant managers.