Cape County commissioners vote to increase coroner's 2020 budget

Cape Girardeau County commissioners passed a motion Monday increasing the county coroner’s budget by $23,000 to cover third quarter expenses of this year.

“The overage right now is $12,000 on that line,” Auditor Pete Frazier said, “because of previous 2019 autopsies that needed to be performed that were billed in 2020.”

In addition to the $12,000 for 2019 autopsies, the coroner’s office has two autopsy bills that are currently outstanding — one for $1,000 and the other for roughly $2,500. The coroner’s office also has additional expenditures of $882.79, $5,100 and $522.55 for a total of $22,005.34 needed to cover overages in the first three quarters of 2020.

Commissioners also tasked the coroner’s office with informing the commission of its fourth quarter expenses through the first two weeks of December.

“I recommend that we go ahead and increase the coroner’s budget $23,000 at this time to cover expenses for the third quarter of this last year,” Commissioner Paul Koeper said, “and then see if y’all can come up with your expenses up to a certain date by the end of this week. Try to narrow that down so we don’t have a lot to carry over for next year.”

In other business during Monday’s meeting, the commissioners:

• Approved a trade of $80,000 worth of “soft match” to Perry County in exchange for $40,000 worth of bridge replacement and rehabilitation (BRO) funds.
• Approved the paving of County Road 452, and accepted a property owner’s donation of land to straighten the road and eliminate two 90-degree turns.
• Approved closing county offices Dec. 24 in observance of Christmas Eve.
• Approved an easement from Sho-Me Tech to inspect fiber-optic internet cables at 2137 Rust Ave. in Cape Girardeau and 100 Court St. in Jackson.
• Approved a payment of $2,013.02 to Little River Drainage to maintain a ditch from property owners in the district.
• Discussed remaining Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funds, including a $127,785 payment approved in August to Control Technology & Solutions LLC. for the installation of needlepoint bipolar ionizations in its buildings.