MOSES LAKE — Construction on a new Grant County morgue is scheduled to start this fall. County officials interviewed possible contractors Aug. 14, with the selection announced in late August or early September. 

“We would expect to make a decision on a general contractor pretty rapidly,” said Tom Gaines, Grant County Central Services director.  

Gaines said construction was delayed by the search for suitable property. County officials made multiple offers for property owned by the Moses Lake School District near the site of the new hospital, but MLSD officials didn’t respond, Gaines said. That set the project back. 

“We are very behind,” Gaines said. 

The need for a new morgue arose because the existing one is in Samaritan Hospital. A new Samaritan Hospital will open in 2026, and it doesn’t include a new morgue.

Gaines said the new facility won’t be finished by the time the new hospital opens.  

“We are working on a temporary morgue solution for the coroner,” he said. 

The estimated project cost is $4-6 million for construction. Total project costs are budgeted at about $7.14 million. 

The property is on Kittelson Road Northeast, near the Interstate 90 interchange. 

“We’re doing (the project) the same way as the jail,” he said.  

The new Grant County Jail is under construction using a method called design-build, where design and construction are combined in one contract. An architect has already been selected, he said, and will work with the contractor to design the facility and come up with a construction schedule.  

“This approach lets us collaborate closely with the architect and contractor to design and build a high-quality facility, avoiding the risks of low-bid requirements,” Gaines wrote in a release.  

County officials and Samaritan administrators held some preliminary discussions about putting a morgue in the jail during the planning phase for the new hospital. But the morgue went through a reaccreditation process, and the resulting report recommended a facility that would be too big for the space available at the hospital.  

Grant County Coroner Craig Morrison said in an earlier interview that the accreditation process included an analysis of the existing space and the caseload. It concluded the morgue needed more staff and more space, given the increasing caseload. The hospital, however, didn’t have the recommended space. 

County officials started looking for an alternative site. Morrison said it’s most convenient if the morgue is located where most of the cases are, and in Grant County, that’s Moses Lake. 

The county owns property on Randolph Road Northeast, and that was considered as a site but rejected.