Amy Elliot, chief administrative officer for the Medical Examiner’s Office, told members of the Board of Medicolegal Investigations Thursday her agency is still undergoing negotiations with the University of Central Oklahoma for a new state-of-the-art facility to be housed within the campus.
The Medical Examiner’s Office has been dealing with backlogs of death cases and cramped, deteriorating facilities for years.
A Supreme Court decision last September allowing a new facility to be built through the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Master Lease Program has allowed the project and negotiations to take place.
Elliot said UCO has increased its bonding capacity to $40 million, a relief to the agency who had been previously operating under 2007-2008 estimates of $38.5 million for construction of the new facility.
The 2014 estimate to build the same facility is now estimated to cost $46 million.
“We didn’t know this new sum until $38.5 bond was approved last year and the architects could be engaged in earnest calculations,” Elliot commented.
Using a variety of bonds, cash reserves and savings from future fiscal appropriations, the office is estimated to have $45 million for construction of the facility.
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