Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved using $8 million in fiscal year 2019 general fund reserves for the construction of a new forensic laboratory for the Cobb Medical Examiner’s Office.
The 40-year-old facility needs to be replaced, and cost estimates range around $11 million. The remaining $3 million will come from SPLOST revenues. 
In 2014 a critical audit of the medical examiner’s office suggested sweeping changes that prompted the resignation of the chief medical examiner.
Since then, the office has been run by Christopher Gulledge (in photo), and in recent years has been ramping up efforts to grapple with the county’s growing opioid crisis.
The audit was brought about by complaints by citizen Tom Cheek about the way his son’s autopsy was handled, and revealed wider organizational problems.
Cheek unsuccessfully ran for the District 3 Cobb commission seat this year, losing to incumbent JoAnn Birrell in the Republican primary.
Commissioners also voted on Tuesday to spend more than $158,000 to purchase flood storage volume at Wigley Lake in Northeast Cobb.
The funding, which will come from the Cobb Water System Agency, will create an additional 933,926.4 cubic feet of space for stormwater runoff, or around four vertical feet of space in the lake.
The lake is located near the intersection of Kincaid Road and Addison Road.
The county had an agreement with the Wigley Family Trust in 2003 to spend nearly $300,000 for additional stormwater volume at the lake, but the agreement was never executed. The Wigley family recently came back to the county about reactivating the agreement.
The water system says that the additional space being purchased now will address flood mitigation issues in the Noonday Creek Watershed.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved spending $474,805.16 for engineering design services for the second phase of the Bob Callan Trunk Trail, a 10-foot wide trail from Interstate North Parkway to Terrell Mill Road that will span around a third of a mile. The funding comes from the 2015 SPLOST and the design work was awarded to Heath and Linebeck Engineers, Inc.
This portion of the Bob Callan Trail is the central component of the project, which connects the Cumberland area with Marietta. The trail also is being developed near the forthcoming Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
