Adirondack Funeral Home

Enterprise photo — Antonio Olivero) “Lazy” is how Essex County Coroner Frank Whitelaw described the other coroners in his county. “There is no work ethic, to put it bluntly,” he said. The accountability of coroners has been occasionally discussed by the Essex County Board of Supervisors since 2008, and even though the board and people like Whitelaw would like to see some changes, none have come to fruition. It’s like a never-ending conversation. Now Whitelaw is so frustrated he’s threatening to quit. He said he has his resignation letter written. Coroners respond to accidental and unattended deaths. If a person finds a dead body or someone suffers a deadly injury in public, a coroner will respond to declare the death and possibly transport the remains to a hospital. But, if a person dies in his or her home with family members watching, or in a hospital, a coroner wouldn’t be called. After retiring from the state police in 2012, Whitelaw began working as an Essex County coroner in 2013. In that time he’s logged 255 calls, of which 38 were in areas closer to another coroner’s home. Granted, there are no specific jurisdictions for coroners; they just cover the county in general. This is one of Whitelaw’s many complaints with the current set-up. Whitelaw is based at his home in Bloomingdale, in the northwest corner of Essex County, and he generally covers the Tri-Lakes area. But on plenty of occasions he’ll have to transport a body from Elizabethtown, Minerva or Chesterfield, all closer to where other coroners live. The other coroners — Paul Connery, Walter Marvin III and Kellie Valentine, all with backgrounds in funeral home directing — are based in Ticonderoga, Elizabethtown and Moriah, respectively. From 2013 to 2016, Whitelaw handled only a few cases outside of the Tri-Lakes each year, which he said he didn’t mind. “It was only a few back then, so it wasn’t much of a hassle,” he said. That number grew ...

Ron Keough of Saranac Lake, head of the county’s Coroner Department, went before the county legislature on Thursday to discuss standardizing coroner fees, and the expected costs for higher transportation and out-of-county autopsy. (Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Keough is deputy head of the county’s coroners.) County Manager Donna Kissane said the $25,000 allotted in the miscellaneous section of the coroner’s budget could be used to address Keough’s recommendations. The county has budgeted about $160,000 for the department in 2019, up from about $121,000 spent in 2017 and $110,000 in 2016. The meeting was held in closed executive session at the county courthouse in Malone. “The transfer fee from the place of death to a medical facility has been $75 for 15 to 20 years,” Keough said after the meeting. “So I’ve been pushing the boulder up the hill to standardize forms, to standardize protocols … expenses. And that’s what this meeting was about.” In documents Keough submitted to the county legislature, he advised that this fee should be raised to $180. Kissane said the county Board of Legislators has taken Keough’s recommendations under advisement and will likely make a resolution in the near future. After picking up a person who has died without witnesses, a coroner typically transports the remains to a local medical facility. In the southern end of Franklin County, that place has long been Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake, but since Dr. C. Francis Varga retired this summer, there has been no pathologist in Franklin County to perform autopsies. Human remains can still go to AMC initially, but if an autopsy is deemed necessary, arrangements must be made for transport elsewhere. However, in the documents Keough submitted to the legislature, he estimated that the number of autopsies would increase this year. Without a pathologist on hand at AMC to make the call whether an autopsy is necessary, remain...

Let’s face it: This is not a time-sensitive breaking news story of national importance. I have been a funeral director for 30 years and a coroner for 24 years, and every newspaper, New York state trooper and county official seems to know how to get in touch with me. As a matter of fact, I was on the phone discussing a coroner’s call with a trooper when I was notified of this article. Further, to use hearsay and conjecture to label the other three coroners (who have, combined, 70-plus years’ experience in this field without any previous problems of note) as lazy individuals not doing our jobs and to drag another’s legal issues out into the public based on one person’s opinions is just shoddy, petty journalism. Four elected part-time coroners are paid $4,400 annually to be on call 24/7 with a per-diem rate when we go to a call at all hours of the day, in every kind of weather and to some very challenging locations across a large county with our own vehicle and equipment. It won’t surprise you to know that most coroners can’t live on this income without another job. For decades, the coroners have worked as a team to cover each other when a job, family matter, illness or vacation has made it impossible for one to respond. Most years, some coroners take more calls than others — there were many years when I was that coroner and I can understand some frustration at times. I am a New York state resident who spends the winters in Florida. I spend over half the year in Elizabethtown. I answer calls professionally and am available by phone all year. Calls to coroners usually go out based on location. This year I was contacted 15 times and was able to handle 12 of those cases. I continue this work because my heart is still in this job. I continue my education in this field through up-to-date training and am a current member of the New York State County Coroners and Medical Examiners Association. I enjoy my relationships with the local and state police, the county officials and...