POCATELLO — The Bannock County Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to pull the plug on bringing a forensic pathology center to East Idaho.

The decision comes after the county spent about five years working to add such a facility, which would have been only the second location in the state where autopsies could be conducted. All of the state’s autopsies are currently performed at a facility in southwest Idaho’s Ada County and it had been hoped that having a similar facility in Bannock County would have added more convenient and efficient autopsy services for East Idaho’s 17 counties.

“I’ve received a lot of phone calls and a lot of interest (about this project),” said Bannock County Commission Chairman Ernie Moser at Thursday’s commissioners meeting. “I’ve talked to a lot of different people, I’ve talked to all the elected officials in Bannock County and everybody says, ‘Well it’s a good idea, but we don’t have answers and we have concerns.’ As I’ve looked through projects that I believe that we need to fulfill in Bannock County, I can’t put $3.5 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds toward this and neglect some of the other projects that we have.”

Moser then offered Commissioner John Crowder a chance to speak but he declined.

Crowder, in an opinion column in the Idaho State Journal last month, stated that the cost of building the center has varied wildly, with initial costs predicted to be around $2 million before the county upped the amount to $3.5 million in addition to other estimates coming in as high as $9.1 million.

According to Crowder’s column, bodies that require forensic autopsies are normally sent to Ada County with a per autopsy cost of about $2,300 for the service. Last month, Bannock County conducted two autopsies for other counties over two days at Portneuf Medical Center with a total cost of $7,000 to $8,000 for each autopsy, Crowder stated in his effort to show that operating the center would be cost-prohibitive.

Prior to Crowder authoring his column, Bannock County Clerk Jason Dixon sent an email to several other East Idaho county clerks who were interested in their counties using the forensic pathology center, which would have been built near the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office in south Pocatello. Dixon’s email detailed some concerns that he identified regarding the project.

In addition to pointing out that Bannock County had no approved fee for providing the autopsy service, Dixon’s email stated that there was no established billing process, including no system to generate invoices and no process for remittance and payment.

During a Thursday phone interview, Dixon explained that even if the amount counties were charged for each autopsy at the center was set at $2,300, that wouldn’t be enough for Bannock County to cover just the cost of paying a forensic pathologist to conduct the autopsies at the facility.

Dixon said that collectively, East Idaho’s 17 counties conduct about 70 autopsies each year and that even if that number were rounded up to 100 autopsies, that would only generate $230,000 at the $2,300 rate, which is less than the $275,000 to $300,000 in annual salary that was advertised for the Bannock County forensic pathologist job listing.

“That doesn’t include the cost of keeping the lights on and water running at the facility or covering equipment and materials,” Dixon added.

Bannock County Commissioner Jeff Hough, who took over spearheading the forensic pathology center project from Commissioner Terrel “Ned” Tovey in 2022 after Tovey lost in the GOP primary election to Crowder, responded to Dixon’s concerns during a Thursday phone interview with the Journal.

Hough said that one of the aspects of this project that didn’t get talked about enough was a proposed subscription model. Through this model, participating counties would purchase an annual subscription to conduct autopsies at the center based on their county population and the national autopsy rate of one autopsy per 1,000 people. For example, a county with a population of 40,000 people would be able to perform up to 40 autopsies a year at the center for one flat rate.

Dixon explained that the issue with the subscription model is that many of East Idaho’s 17 counties are conducting less than the one autopsy per 1,000 residents and are not interested in having more autopsies conducted just for the sake of making the subscription model pencil out.

For Hough, however, getting East Idaho’s counties to conduct more autopsies isn’t important solely because of the subscription model or to demonstrate a need for a local forensic pathology center, but rather something that he feels would address the fact that Idaho isn’t conducting enough autopsies.

Hough said that after the test run of two autopsies being performed at PMC last month, Bannock County received requests to conduct two dozen more, many of which he said will ultimately not get conducted now that the center has been nixed.

During Thursday’s meeting, Hough described the project as one that has divided the county.

“This has been a pretty divisive topic and it has fractured the county in numerous ways,” Hough said at the meeting. “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. And I’m OK with that. If that’s what the county wants, so be it. So, in the interest of trying to heal the fractures within the county, I will move that we approve killing the project and make the first vote a yes.”

Crowder, in response to Hough’s comments, provided the Journal with the following statement:

“Today’s vote was a win for the Bannock County taxpayers. The $3.5 million that had been allocated to the lab can now be redirected to truly beneficial projects. Possibilities include needed work at the county jail, the fairgrounds, the Veterans Memorial Building and more. I’m thankful to my fellow commissioners for coming to this decision.”

As of now, Bannock County has about $4.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act money left that it must dedicate toward other projects by July 31.

After the commissioners voted to kill the forensic pathology center project, Moser expressed a desire for the endeavor to receive attention from the state and said he still thinks the center is “a necessity for our area.”

Hough, too, wants to be able to revive the project but feels assistance from lawmakers is needed before any feasible progress can be made.

“The future of this project will start again when the Legislature looks to improve the nature of death investigations in the state,” Hough said.