Brazos County commissioners decide to change the location of its future medical examiner’s office.
This is after commissioners approved the purchase of undeveloped land from St. Joseph Regional Health Center.
The location of the 11 acre plot is on 29th Street between Broadmoor and Briarcrest, which is east of St. Joseph’s Bryan hospital.
County judge Duane Peters says the original location, near the Texas A&M’s health science center, was a bit small and contained ravines that were too expensive to fill.
Peters was also concerned that time would run out to spend federal pandemic grant money to build the examiner’s office.
Peters still plans to reach an agreement with A&M to run the medical examiner’s office and train medical students.
The county judge says the acreage also has enough space if there is ever an agreement to build a joint 9-1-1 center to serve all public safety agencies in Brazos County.
Commissioners will take money from the county’s contingency fund to pay for the $1.8 million dollar purchase, which Peters says was the value from a recent appraisal by St. Joseph’s.
The Brazos Central Appraisal District listed the 2022 value of the property at $1,450,548 dollars. That is after the appraisal district listed the value for ten years, between 2012 and 2021, at around $942,000 dollars.
Commissioners approved the purchase on a 4-0 vote. Chuck Konderla abstained because he is an employee of the St. Joseph Foundation.
Click below for comments from Duane Peters, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.