Knox County Coroner Jacque Dare will move her office, equipment, and supplies to the former Mary Davis Home after the Knox County board approved a plan to provide her with a permanent office space.
That need is a relatively new one for the county as the previous coroner owned a funeral home and did not need a county office.
Dare, who was elected in 2024, has not had a dedicated space. Her office has been in the county annex building while the body cooler is in Knoxville and supplies are in other locations. She said she currently keeps cremated remains that families cannot afford to pick up in a closet.
“I have approximately eight people in my closet,” Dare told the board.
Dare said the move will consolidate equipment and supplies in a central location, including the cooler, body bags, gloves, biohazard kits, and PPE. Under statute, the county is required to provide space for elected officials.
In the former Mary Davis Home building, which is at 1319 E. 5th St. in Galesburg, the coroner’s office will be in the garage. It will have a dedicated entrance and the area will be locked.
The Mary Davis Home closed in March. While the juvenile detention center was run by the Ninth Judicial Circuit, Knox County owns and maintains the building. Some employees of the judicial circuit still work at the building.
Dare said the major cost to the county will be moving the cooler. While she has contracted with a towing company to move it for free, the refrigeration system will have to be removed and reinstalled.
Patty Boone, R-District 5, was the lone vote against the move. One of her concerns was liability.
“The downside of it is the care, the custody of human remains. There is a larger increase in liability in that,” Boone said. “Do we want to take that on? If something would happen, do we want to deal with lawsuits in regard to family members with duress that their religious required us to treat the human remains in a certain way, and it wasn’t done that way?”
The county’s insurance provider confirmed liability insurance premiums will not increase as result of the move.
Dare told the board the coroner’s office does not store bodies every day.
“I usually will, can have up to five people in there a month,” Dare said. “And it’s usually a quick turnaround. They’re in there, I take them for autopsy, and they go to a funeral home.”
In other business, the board approved an ordinance authorizing the issuance and sale of $24 million in general obligation bonds to make improvements to the Knox County landfill.
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