The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Medical Examiner’s Office in new building
Agency moves into $11 million expanded facility.
The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office has a new home designed to help the department keep up with a growing population.
The agency over the weekend moved into an $11 mil- lion, 19,000-square-foot building on County Services Parkway. The new building replaces its old facility on North Marietta Parkway next to the Cobb County Police Department that was con- structed in 1978, the county said.
Cobb Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Gulledge said the original building opened when the county had one medical examiner and its population was around 250,000 people.
“Today, Cobb County has 750,000 people and we needed significant expan- sion to meet the need for the county,” he said.
Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said construction techniques done in the 1970s didn’t allow for an expan- sion of the original building, and protective measures against diseases like COVID- 19 were not part of that facility’s design.
The new building is expected to accommodate the growth Cobb will see over the next 30 years, and “conforms to or exceeds new standards” in forensic pathol- ogy or morgue facilities, Cavitt said.
The project was funded by the county’s 2016 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. The medical examiner investigates causes and man- ners of deaths in conjunc- tion with the Cobb County Sheriff ’s Office, local police departments and judicial system. It has 15 full-time and five part-time employees. So far this year, the office has investigated nearly 1,500 cases, compared to 1,611 cases in 2019.