WARSAW — Kosciusko County’s new coroner facility is up and running — and has been operational since the middle of November, according to Kosciusko County Coroner Tony Ciriello.

“We’re active in this building now,” Ciriello said. “We still have some file cabinets and a few things to move in to be 100 percent operational, but we’re 95 percent operational right now.” 

Ciriello had hoped to have the facility ready for use last summer, but complications with the remodeling of the building led to delays.

There’s a possibility that an official open house may be held in the spring but that idea is in the planning stages.

Prior to the acquisition of this building, Ciriello and previous coroners in the county depended largely on funeral homes and the local hospital to help coordinate services. 

Funeral homes provided space for autopsies and an area hospital provided space to hold a body, contingent upon room availability.

Ciriello’s office was previously in the basement of the annex building, a former church north of the county Justice Building. Ciriello said he was able to do paperwork and filing at that office but had no place to perform other job duties.

“We had no place where we could actually work and do everything we needed to do in one shop.”

The county took advantage of an opportunity to acquire the former Sasso Veterinary Hospital, located at 1275 W. Lake St., Warsaw, in 2018. 

“We have needed a facility like this for a long time,” Ciriello said. “In the fall of 2018, I was driving past this building and saw that it was for sale.”

Ciriello said he contacted a realtor and after taking a tour of the building, felt that it would be ideal. 

He spoke with County Administrator Marsha McSherry about the idea, then went to the county commissioners and county council. 

“We were instructed to get some figures together regarding what it would cost to buy it, what the cost would be to remodel it,” Ciriello said. “We did, and the commissioners approved the purchase and remodeling of the building. The council approved funding for both.”

Ciriello said the process took about 13 months. 

“The commissioners and the council were great to work with and I can’t thank them both enough,” Ciriello said.

Ciriello said as they began figuring costs for the building and remodeling, he felt an obligation as an office holder to contribute. 

“We needed an autopsy table and I was able to get the autopsy table donated,” Ciriello said. “I went to Dr. (Bill) Remington, our county health officer, and he asked what he could do to help.”

Remington spoke with Bob Weaver, Kosciusko County Health Department administrator, and the two agreed to purchase a body cooler for the facility. 

Ciriello said he believes the cost of the building and remodeling work totaled around $150,000. The donated items acquired are valued at about $30,000. 

The new facility means they will no longer need to rely on funeral homes to help out.

“They’ve been great. Every funeral home in this county has been great in working with us,” Ciriello said. “But it can put an undue burden on them to open their doors at three o’clock in the morning for us to do what we need to do.”

The coroner’s office investigates any death that is not a natural death with a documented medical history, Ciriello said. 

“Any death that is the result of murder, suicide, accident, work-related, overdoses, those types of deaths.”

Ciriello said his office investigates an average of 125 deaths per year.

The Kosciusko County Coroner’s office employs seven deputy coroners who are all certified as medical-legal death investigators through the state of Indiana.

Ciriello handles the majority of duties Monday through Friday, while the deputies rotate weekends and provide coverage when Ciriello is on vacation. 

“We have plenty of room here for what we need to do. The building needed some rehab in order to make some things ADA compliant,” Ciriello said, pointing out that the restroom had to be completely renovated and a hallway had to be widened. 

“We have a family viewing room so if the family wants to see their loved one while they’re in our care we can take them in there and shut the door so their family can spend some time with them,” Ciriello said. “That was one of the things I wanted to make sure we had in this building when we did it.”

There is an area in the front of the building where Ciriello can sit down with families to gather information prior to releasing their loved one to a funeral home of their choice.

The new facility also contains offices, an area for file cabinets, a storage area and a large room in the back where work is performed. There is also a carport at the back of the building where the coroner can park and where funeral homes can do pickups.

“Is this building 100 percent what dreams would have?” Ciriello said. “No, probably not, but is it 100 percent what we needed? Yes, it is.”

Ciriello said he looked into the possibility of building a new facility and found that the cost would have been three times what the county put into the current facility. 

“This will meet our needs for many years,” Ciriello said. “It’s an expenditure for the county, but it’s something that was needed and now everything we do is under one roof.”