Belmont County Coroner Amanda Fisher provides a report to Belmont County Commissioners. (T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA)

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Belmont County Coroner Amanda Fisher on Wednesday provided Belmont County Board of Commissioners with a report on the happenings in her department, including requests to purchase items for the office.

Fisher said that the board will soon see submissions for a truck and cot. She said that the cot would be coming out of the coroner’s budget and the truck would come from a bid that the board recently made public.

“Belmont Dodge was the highest bid by more than $5,000 compared to Doan Ford. The big question I’m waiting for both of them is how soon the truck would be available to us,” Fisher said. “We unfortunately had an equipment failure during delivery to an autopsy this past week that resulted in one of our investigators getting hurt pretty badly from the cot that we’re using.”

She added that the cot in the current truck is old.

“Cots are very expensive, surprisingly, like, $30,000 expensive. In 2023, Neffs was gracious enough to donate their old cot to us when they got a new one. So we’ve been working with hand-me-downs this whole time … which is fine. We can do with that,” Fisher said.

She added that, ideally, she would need a cot with the load system which is the same load system that Cumberland Trail Fire District’s EMS uses.

“We just got the updated quote for that, and I’m not impressed. So we’re going to go a different avenue. And I wanted to let you guys know that the cot itself is over $30,000 and the load system is $31,864,” Fisher said. “I called the other coroners and said ‘I know you guys can’t all afford these load systems in these smaller counties. So what are you doing?'”

She added she’s recently spoken with a couple fabricators of truck bed aces.

“Instead, we can operate very well and very safely with a winch system, an aluminum drop-down ramp that we can use for the cots. And the winch system will do all of that work for us. And you know, looking between $5,000 and $10,000 for that fabricated system. It’s custom built, versus $31,000 so I just wanted to make you guys aware of the changes between what we originally talked about,” Fisher said. “I don’t like to spend money if we don’t have to, but I want everyone to be safe. Currently, my husband has to fabricate some things on our truck right now to make it safe again. We are not able to transport currently, we’re having to either have a squad transport for us or pay a transport service if we have autopsies.”

Fisher said that despite being early into 2026, she has already done six autopsies for the month of January.

“We are well beyond what we normally are already for the year, and just with calls in general, we’ve had a very busy January,” she said.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann asked her if the uptick in deaths in Jan. are related to the abnormal extreme temperatures and snow. Fisher replied that she was unsure if weather had anything to do with any deaths but there have been very unusual deaths. She added that some of our deaths are not really happening in Belmont County but are being transported to Barnesville Hospital, and then when they’re pronounced dead at Barnesville Hospital, then it becomes her case.

“Regardless of where it happened, it’s where they’re pronounced deceased at. That’s when the county takes jurisdiction. So it’s just been a busier month,” Fisher said. “We’ve had a lot of younger deaths and when I say younger, we’re having deaths of people between 40 and 50 who have no underlying health issues, they don’t have any medical history there.”

Echemann asked if coroners always find the cause of death to which she replied that unfortunately they do not always find the reason. Fisher said that for a tissue sample she’ll take a section of the lung and culture to see if it grows any type of a bacteria, which could indicate that it may have been an underlying infection that nobody was aware of.

“On the plus side, though, we’re starting our program with [Juvenile and Probate] Judge [Al] Davies with the mock trials, followed up with a fentanyl presentation,” she said. “Last year, we hit all of the middle and high schools on the eastern side of the county, and this year, we’ll do the western side of the county.”

She added that the students and staff at the middle schools and high schools the program reached always really received it very well.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton thanked Fisher for continuing to be transparent with the board. He added that East Ohio Regional Hospital’s closure had a big impact on how her office operates.

“The delays of our building project, again, not really of anyone’s fault, per se, but you’ve been very patient,” he said. “Twelve months from now, it’d be a much different situation, not only from a vehicle perspective, but also from an office perspective. And again, we appreciate all the great communication.”