The Barren County coroner is seeking a vehicle to eliminate conflicts when a cadaver needs to be transported.

Coroner Tim Gibson asked Barren County Fiscal Court on Tuesday to appropriate funds to buy a van for his office, which would be used to take cadavers to T.J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow for X-rays or temporary storage in the hospital’s morgue, or to a facility in Louisville for an autopsy.

Since at least the mid-1980s, the coroner’s office has contracted the Barren-Metcalfe County Emergency Medical Services to move bodies, Gibson told fiscal court. “We don’t have any way to transport these individuals, and we need – we really need – to find a dependable means to do that,” he said.

While the ambulance service has never refused to transport a body, it sometimes is unable to help, Gibson said.

“There’s instances that they didn’t have the equipment, it was in the shop, it was busy, they were running the roads with them,” he said.

When the ambulance service cannot move a body, the coroner’s office has to borrow a van from a local funeral home, Gibson said.

“Unfortunately, some instances that go for autopsies can’t wait. They need to be transported now,” he said.

The system of contracting with the ambulance service to move cadavers was established because previous coroners Mike Swift and Larry Marion were also affiliated with the ambulance service, according to J.D. Walden, the ambulance services’ deputy director.

“The coroner didn’t have anything to do with moving cadavers,” he said. “He just kind of contracted it through the ambulance service.”

According to Walden, ambulance service employees are required to drive the ambulances to deliver bodies on the coroner’s behalf for insurance purposes.

The ambulance service has nine ambulances, but five is the most the service can have ready to go and fully staffed at any given time, Walden said, adding that the service always has to have at least one on hand in case of an emergency.

“Now that the coroner is no longer affiliated with the ambulance service, it’s time for them to move on to their own source of transportation,” he said.

In fiscal court on Tuesday, Gibson said he was eyeing a new van that a dealer in Lexington was offering to sell for $23,703.

The van, if purchased, would require an additional $6,500 for the proper equipment, as well as lights and lettering, he said.

When District 3 Magistrate Carl Dickerson asked how often bodies needed to be transported, Gibson said his office has received 82 calls for service since the beginning of the year, adding that about half of these had to be taken to an autopsy.

Gibson said he would also drive the vehicle to work, though he would make sure it was available for deputy coroners who need to drive somewhere in response to a call for service.

A question from District 2 Magistrate Trent Riddle about whether the vehicle should be put out to bid prompted Barren County Judge-Executive Micheal Hale to ask District 1 Magistrate John Benningfield to take the vehicle under the consideration of a finance committee he chairs, which Benningfield agreed to do.

“It seems like there’s just some unanswered questions I feel like the court has,” Hale said.

On Friday, fiscal court published a news release saying that the court would hold a special-called meeting at 7 a.m. Tuesday to discuss a request for a purchase order for equipment for a used van A.F. Crow & Son Funeral Home is donating to the coroner’s office, as well as the 2017 tax rates from the state.