ST. LOUIS — The city of St. Louis is deconstructing a temporary COVID-19 morgue it never used, as St. Louis County's facility continues to operate, also with no bodies.
The city's site is at 2135 Chouteau Ave., on land donated by St. Louis Cremation. Jacob Long, spokesman for Mayor Lyda Krewson, said the project, constructed using a large white tent from Traube Tent and truck refrigeration unit from Cooling Concepts, cost the city about $23,400.
Despite not needing to use the facility, "we learned a lot about the process," Long said.
"All of the numbers are trending in the direction downward, so we made the decision not to renew the lease for June, which we think is a safe thing to do," Long said. "But having been through the experience we now know what would be needed" if there's a spike in virus cases this fall.
The administration of St. Louis County Executive Sam Page in April built out a $1.7 million temporary morgue in Earth City. County officials said the morgue was envisioned as a regional center that would hold bodies from multiple jurisdictions.
Though it has a capacity for 1,300 bodies, the facility has held at most 56 and none as of Wednesday, prompting criticism from lawmakers and some citizens that it miscalculated the need. The facility carries a monthly rental cost of $114,204.
Christopher Ave, spokesman for the county's Department of Public Health, said the city participated in task force meetings over a month in which the Earth City morgue was discussed. "We learned about the erection of a tent on the parking lot of the St. Louis Crematorium from a newspaper story," Ave said. "Despite that development, the city's representative continued to participate in our meetings."
Ave said the morgue has held 19 bodies from jurisdictions other than the county, including two from the city. He said the county sent a memorandum of understanding asking "all partners, including the city, to pay a proportion of the costs (of the Earth City morgue) based on percentage of population." St. Charles County paid more than $500,000 toward the build out, but the city hasn't signed the agreement, Ave said.
But Long said the two city bodies sent to the county morgue "were non-medical examiner cases," meaning the individuals died at nursing homes in the city and were stored in Earth City "by request of the funeral home selected by each decedent's family."
"The city participated in (planning) discussions strictly for situational awareness purposes and repeatedly made clear very early on that we had no intention on using the (Earth City morgue) because we made our own arrangements," Long said.
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