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With Cody Gortmaker filing to run for Park County coroner, the elected position is becoming one of the most hotly contested offices in the upcoming Aug. 16 primary.
Gortmaker, 33, is the fourth …
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With Cody Gortmaker filing to run for Park County coroner, the elected position is becoming one of the most hotly contested offices in the upcoming Aug. 16 primary.
Gortmaker, 33, is the fourth person to file with the county election office as a candidate for the position. The Cody resident joins Eric Crumb, Emily Denney and Zachary Thompson as a coroner candidate.
Gortmaker, who filed as a Republican, said he has 14 years of related experience.
“I’m running because I’ve got the experience necessary and I’m humbly eager to represent my community in that position,” Gortmaker said. “I’ve helped hundreds of families.”
Currently, Gortmaker is a managing director and employee/owner of Ballard Funeral Home in Cody, where he has practiced since 2010. According to the funeral home’s website, he is a licensed funeral service practitioner and certified crematory operator.
After graduating with a degree in mortuary science from Black Hills State University, Gortmaker spent time as a coroner in South Dakota.
“I’ve been a deputy coroner in Meade County [South Dakota], where Sturgis is,” he said. “We investigated a lot of deaths related to [the] Sturgis bike rally.”
After examining corpses resulting from the well-known motorcycle rally, over the years Gortmaker said he took responsibility for making sure “those bodies” are “cared for so they could get back home.”
Gortmaker is married and has an 8-year-old son, with “a daughter on the way.”
He touted his relationships with a variety of municipal government officials and experience filing death certificates as strengths for the elected position.
“I’ve got relationships with countless law-enforcement officials at the sheriff’s office and police departments, as well as [local government] officials, that are necessary to have when serving as coroner.
“I’m very familiar with the state system and all that’s necessary to file death certificates,” he continued. “The coroner paperwork for death certificates has to be completed in a very particular way as far as the medical side of things, or they will be rejected.”
Gortmaker said he has assisted Park County’s outgoing coroner with filing death certificates for the past 12 years.
“I’ve been the one who’s helped him complete his medical records,” Gortmaker said of his working relationship with Tim Power, the current Park County coroner.
