BANNOCK — The Belmont County Health Department is one step closer to completing its new facility.

Grae-Con Construction recently broke ground on the new facility

“Obviously the activity has picked up quite a bit, anyone that has been near the site has noticed quite a bit of dirt moving. They’re in full construction mode,as we speak,” Belmont County Commissioner J.P. Dutton said. “They’re doing all the site prep right now, and I see a lot of activity happening there for the rest of the year.”

He added that the project will be done in two phases, with phase one pertaining to the building construction and phase two, which hasn’t gone out to bid yet will consist of all of the site work around the building in terms of the parking areas.

Although Grae-Con is completing the first phase, Dutton said that phase two will go out to bid sometime this Spring.

Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann said that although ground has been broken for the new Health Department facility, he doesn’t feel comfortable announcing a firm completion date due to the scale of the project.

“I hate to give you a firm deadline, we’re doing it in two phases. This first phase, which is being worked on now, is the building itself to five feet out. The second phase will be anything beyond five feet out, and it’s kind of complicated. We have to work with ODOT (the Ohio Department of Transportation) in terms of traffic,” Echemann said. “There’ll probably end up being a new right hand turn lane to get into that location, which is the old County home location. So it’s involving ODOT, there’s been some discussion of another traffic light there but we do not think there will be another traffic light there, because there are already a couple out there.”

He added that he doesn’t believe there is enough traffic in the area for the need of a new traffic light but does believe a right-hand turn lane will be needed to accommodate the flow of traffic going to the Health Department.

During the 2024 Belmont County Coroner’s election the new Health Department became a main point of contention between both Belmont County Coroner Amanda Fisher and former Belmont County Coroner Troy Balgo.

Until its closure in 2019, the county used the East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry’s morgue to store the bodies and perform any autopsies or any other procedures that may needed to be performed. When the hospital closed its doors, the county had difficulty finding a replacement for the morgue. Both Balgo and Fisher agree that several funeral homes were contacted along with WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital, but ultimately none of those locations was able to house a morgue.

While attempting to find a solution the county Balgo approached the Belmont County Board of Commissioners to attempt to find a temporary solution which t led to a small refrigerated unit being installed in the parking lot of the Belmont County Health Department which many people in the community have referred to as “the shed.”

“People don’t realize that the county coroner Belmont County, as far as we know, have never had their own office. They’ve just been these doctors who worked out of their own offices. So now there’ll be a place the coroner will have space for her office, a space to meet with the families of the deceased at a garage door, where you can pull a truck in and bring that body in and stuff like that,” Echemann said.

Fisher added that the lack of office space and an appropriate facility has been a significant challenge, and she cannot wait for the day her and her staff will be able to operate in a space that she believes will reflect the professionalism and compassion of our work.

She added that she first met with the Commissioners in January 2021 to discuss this vision, and added that they were supportive, but assured her that while patience would be necessary, the goal could become a reality.

“I didn’t realize just how much patience it would require but I know it will be worth it,” Fisher said.

“This new facility will allow us to perform essential duties with the respect and efficiency our community expects. We will have a private and professional space to load and unload the deceased, a proper setting for families to make identifications, and a dedicated office where we can meet with grieving loved ones. Additionally, this space will provide an area for families to say their final goodbyes in the case of direct cremations and allow funeral homes remote access to the morgue at times that accommodate their needs.”