Bannock County commissioners approve application for forensic-equipment grant to build medical-examiner capability

Bannock County commissioners voted to apply for a federal grant to purchase forensic equipment that Coroner Tory Danner said would help build the county's forensic capability and position the office for accreditation.

Danner told the board the grant would cover equipment including a walk-in cooler, a table-and-sink autopsy setup and a toxicology instrument for in-house testing. "It is a short timeline, so that's why we wanted to get out here," Danner said, and estimated the request at "approximately a $100,000 for equipment." She said the grants team had already reviewed the application draft.

The grant is intended to buy equipment the coroner's office needs for day-to-day operations, Danner said, and the county would store items until a new facility is ready. "So all 3 of those pieces ... that's a day-to-day thing. We need those ... and we need to be able to use the table to do our inspections on," she said. A commissioner raised concerns that equipment purchase could be premature if the county ultimately decided not to build a new facility; Danner replied the only barrier would be a decision not to build.

Board members and staff also discussed logistics and timing. Commissioners asked whether the cooler would be ``walk-in'' and what its capacity would be; Danner described the planned footprint (discussing roughly 10-by-10 to 10-by-20 configurations and a rack system) and said the equipment matches what the office already uses in its trailer. The commissioners asked about the grant deadline; staff noted the application window was short, with a date referenced in the discussion as 10/06.

The county will pay an application fee to the regional grants administrator CCOG. Danessa Pada of CCOG explained the process for submitting the application and said CCOG would add county staff as users on the federal portal to speed submission. The board confirmed it would pay a $5,000 fee to CCOG "upon writing the grant," a cost that will come from the same fund the county would otherwise use to buy the equipment.

Commissioner (unnamed) moved to apply for the grant and to authorize staff to coordinate final submission with CCOG; the motion carried on a voice vote. No further spending on equipment was authorized at this meeting; commissioners said they would revisit any purchase if the grant were awarded.

The motion was to apply for the grant only; if the county is selected, commissioners said they will return to the board to discuss acceptance and any subsequent spending decisions.

Votes at a glance: The board voted to apply for the forensic-equipment grant and to authorize staff to proceed with submission coordination with CCOG. The application fee of $5,000 to CCOG was confirmed as an upfront cost to be charged when the grant-writing step is undertaken. The board's voice vote was recorded as "aye" with no roll-call tally provided in the minutes.