New Builder May Be Hired for Morgue
Five months after the project’s original contractor went bankrupt, Ventura County officials are proposing to hire another construction firm to complete work on a new county morgue.
The county Public Works Department will ask the Board of Supervisors today to approve a contract with J. W. Bailey Construction Co. of Santa Barbara to finish work on the $1.4-million project.
Construction on the new facility being built at Foothill and Hospital roads in Ventura was halted in October after contractor New York Construction Co. of Woodland Hills went bankrupt, officials said.
The proposed contract with Bailey calls for work to resume immediately on the 8,000-square-foot building, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, said Dick Miller, the county’s project manager. The building was originally scheduled to be finished by June.
Dr. Ronald L. O’Halloran, the county’s medical examiner, said that a new morgue is desperately needed to consolidate services under one roof. He said the current 4,000-square-foot morgue is housed in the basement of the county medical center, and the medical examiner’s office, a converted machine storage shed, is located three blocks away.
The medical examiner’s office has been in use since 1976.
“It was supposed to be a temporary quarters,” O’Halloran said. “It’s been temporary now for about 20 years.”
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