Last week, an ordinance was introduced that allows the borough to bury a dead body after 72 hours in the morgue. The ordinance was drafted by manager Annette Kreitzer, who worked with the Volunteer Fire Department to craft the language. The volunteer firefighters are in charge of transporting bodies and who work in the morgue.
The ordinance comes after an internal family disagreement last year over where to bury their deceased loved one. The incident resulted in the body being left in the borough morgue for five days, slowly decomposing in the summer heat, Kreitzer said.
The borough morgue is located at the back of the public facilities building, and is behind a single, small garage door. The space also hosts evidence from the police department, and is therefore not open to the public.
The morgue has a small compressor that chills the space, but has a hard time maintaining low temperatures, especially in the summer. Kreitzer said that because of the compressor issues, the garage door has to be left open a few feet to allow for adequate ventilation.
In 2020, the borough considered using the CARES Act money to pay for a new morgue. CVN reported at the time that the new morgue was in the design phase with plans for construction in the fall.
However, the borough never got the new morgue. “We are pursuing replacing that building as a whole,” said Kreitzer.
Without a new morgue, the borough’s proposed ordinance is meant to address health and safety concerns.
When a person dies in Haines, they are either sent to a medical examiner in Juneau, or sent to be buried in another Alaska community, or buried out of state, or they are buried at Jones Point. The borough requires a burial permit of $350 that covers the cost of digging the plot.
In the case of the family that couldn’t decide where to bury their loved one, one member had already paid for a burial permit, so the body was eventually interred at Jones Point. The borough viewed the permit as a contractual agreement, but also realized there was nothing in code to address a situation like this if it ever were to arise again.
“If a person hasn’t purchased a plot, and the family hasn’t decided where to bury the deceased, we can’t let VFP be in the middle of that,” said Kreitzer.