The Park County government is moving forward with plans for a new coroner’s facility in Cody, where dead bodies can be temporarily stored and examined. Construction is tentatively set to start on May 1.

Last month, county commissioners hired Filener Construction of Cody to serve as the contractor manager at risk on the project, which is expected to cost around $420,000.

While it seems like a lot of money, “I do believe this is the best that we can do,” Commissioner Lloyd Thiel said during a meeting last month, adding that the county’s preliminary design is “about as basic a building as we can get.”

Draft plans feature a roughly 1,350-square-foot building with an office, meeting room for family members, bathrooms, storage and an exam room, plus 826 square feet for a garage and a walk-in cooler for bodies.

“It’s not real complex,” Park County Engineer Brian Edwards said of the plans. “It’s basically a house, with some things that are specific to a coroner facility.”

For decades, Park County’s coroners — who are generally charged with determining the cause and manner of unexpected or unattended deaths — have used space inside the Powell and Cody funeral homes for their operations. However, Cody’s Ballard Funeral Home notified Coroner Tim Power last May that it no longer had room for his equipment, spurring a hurried search for a new location.

Sheriff Scott Steward allowed Power to temporarily set up inside a garage bay at the Park County Law Enforcement Center. However, the sheriff’s office eventually needs the area back for its operations — and it’s not a great place to host relatives of the deceased.

That’s why the county is looking to build a new, separate coroner’s facility on land adjacent to the law enforcement center.

“... We really don’t have a lot of choice,” Thiel said of constructing a new building, adding that, “we don’t have anywhere to go; we have nowhere.”

It’s a tight budget year for the county, but commissioners plan to offset about half the cost with $209,000 of state funding. The Powell, Cody and Meeteetse councils — along with the state’s top five elected officials — all must sign off before the county can spend the funds, but that approval should only be a formality.

“Given health, safety, investigation, law enforcement, record keeping and legal considerations, it is important for the coroner to have a modern facility that is safe, secure, sanitary and respectful to the deceased and their families/friends,” county officials explained in their application for the funding.

Commissioners voted to hire Filener Construction to lead the project on Jan. 7, tentatively approving a contract with the Cody firm on Jan. 21.

Filener was among five local companies to submit proposals. Choosing between them was “a very difficult decision,” engineer Edwards said last month. “I thought we had five solid proposals.”

Filener was selected after a review process that considered the companies’ qualifications and experience, their planned approach to the project and their prices, among other factors.

The firms had differing predictions of how much the new facility would cost to construct, ranging from $674,075.95 down to Filener’s $357,850 estimate. The estimates were rough ideas that did not include equipment, some professional fees and site work — and were subject to change, Edwards cautioned; for instance, he said the county got ideas from the different contractors about potential ways to lower the overall cost as the plans are finalized.

“I think we’re encouraged … that we can bring this in close to what [budget] we were planning,” Edwards told the commission.

Under the county’s contract with Filener, the coroner’s facility is expected to be substantially completed by Oct. 30, with the coroner moving in by Nov. 15.