Bannock County commissioners vote down East Idaho Forensic Pathology Center
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POCATELLO — The Bannock County Commission voted to end their involvement with the construction of a forensic pathology center for east Idaho.
At the work session Thursday, the county commissioners voted unanimously against the East Idaho Forensic Pathology Center, but that didn’t mean all of them were against the idea.
“I’ve received a lot of phone calls, a lot of interest and talked a lot of different people, and I talked to all the elected officials in Bannock County and everybody says it’s a good idea, but we don’t have answers, and we have concerns,” said Chairman Ernie Moser.
Commissioner Jeff Hough said in his discussions about the project with constituents, he felt it was a fairly even split between people who supported it versus those who were against it.
Although Commissioner John Crowder didn’t make any comments during the section of the meeting when they discussed the pathology center, he spoke to EastIdahoNews.com afterward.
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“Today’s vote was a win for the Bannock County taxpayers. The $3.5 million that had been allocated for the lab can now be redirected to truly beneficial projects,” Crowder said.
Hough had been spearheading the work on the pathology center, but he made the motion to kill the project at the meeting. His reason was because of how divisive is has become in the county.
“I’d like to congratulate Commissioner Crowder on his campaign of fear and misinformation, it has worked. And so once again, Bannock County is willing to let something like this go to Idaho Falls or Twin Falls,” Hough said.
Also in an interview after the meeting, Hough explained his reason for putting the motion forward.
“Based on Commissioner Moser’s statement, I did not believe that he was willing to move forward with the project,” Hough said. “In the interest of trying to bring the county back together, I made the motion to move it or to kill it, and we went that way.”
Before this, the county had committed $3.5 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to the project and had received bids from five contractors to take up the first phase, which would’ve been to construct the prefabricated steel structure.
Although Moser said the services provided by a pathology center are a “necessity” in east Idaho, he also said it’s an undertaking the state could provide.
“As I’ve talked with commissioners from every county around us, most of them, 90% of them say, ‘Yeah, it’s a great idea,’ but in talking to them, they also said that we have an obligation to protect Bannock County,” Moser said.
Crowder’s main objections to the project were cost-based, regarding how much it would take to build the pathology center, and then how much it would cost to run autopsies.
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Crowder says if the project had gone forward, the cost of building the facility would’ve been far greater then the $3.5 million originally allocated.
“The cost for construction alone has been all over the board,” Crowder said. “They don’t know what it’s gonna cost to build this thing.”
For the first phase to stay within its budget, bids had to come in at or under $550,000, Hough said. The five bids the county had received met this requirement.
Currently, east Idaho counties send autopsies to the lab in Ada County. Crowder contends it would’ve been more expensive for Bannock County to run autopsies due to operation costs. Hough said he was referring to outdated data, because they had decided to run a subscription model, where counties pay a regular rate to be able to run autopsies.
Crowder contends this is “speculative,” because Hough assumes all of the counties would agree to join in the subscription model.
“There is no firm agreement with a bunch of counties to do a subscription model for autopsies. Some counties might agree to that. Some counties might not,” Crowder said.
Hough said killing the project when it was this far along was “disappointing.”
“My goal is to help Bannock County become a leader in the state, and I felt like this was a fantastic opportunity for us to do that,” Hough said.