Ada County coroner seeks federal grant for refrigerated trailers; office reports CT machine installation and staffing updates

The Ada County Coroner's Office asked the board on Oct. 7 to authorize an application for a federal grant to purchase a 17-foot refrigerated work trailer and two smaller refrigerated modular cubes to supplement the department’s existing 53-foot refrigerated semi and an aging tow-behind trailer. Coroner Richard Riffle will be the grant applicant and administrator if the board approved submission.

Staff said the replacement tow-behind trailer and the modular cubes improve surge response capability for moderate-scale incidents and provide flexible, scalable storage during events. The grant requires no county match; the coroner’s office would manage reporting and maintenance within its existing budget.

Coroner Riffle reported that his office’s newly hired forensic pathologist recently sat for accreditation boards and that a CT scanner installation is underway and expected to be operational about a month from the meeting date. Staff said CT imaging will be used initially to supplement autopsies—imaging first, then targeted examinations—and that the office has coordinated IT and storage capacity to allow physicians to view CTs remotely.

The coroner’s office also told the board it is monitoring cremation-authorizations and the staff time required to investigate authorizations when documentation is unclear. The office has begun additional outreach and proposed education for area physicians on accurate death-certificate completion to reduce unnecessary investigations; the coroner said it will track how many cremation authorizations require investigation and may revisit fee levels if workload increases.

The board approved the coroner’s request to submit the grant application (grant ID 2511-A).