Wood County Coroner delivers annual report
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PARKERSBURG -- There were 1,209 deaths in Wood County in 2023 that were reported to the Wood County Coroner's Office, according to Wood County Coroner Mike St. Clair.
St. Clair appeared before the Wood County Commission on Thursday to give his annual coroner's report.
"There were 1,209 people who took their last breath in Wood County in 2023," he said.
His office becomes involved in cases of drug overdoses, homicides, suicides, motor vehicle crashes and so on.
"There are certain criteria where we get involved," he said. "We are not involved in every death."
Over the past year, there were 18 suicides, four homicides, 12 motor vehicle crash deaths (including one on an ATV), 30 heart disease deaths, 53 drug deaths, one alcohol death, three fire deaths and nine deaths due to falls.
St. Clair said there were more heart disease deaths in the county overall, but only 30 his office was involved in.
He also expects the drug overdose numbers to increase as the drug overdose started here and the person ended up passing away in Ohio or flown to Morgantown for medical treatment and died two or three days later. The records at the state will be updated accordingly. He is estimating there were around 65 total drug related deaths, once the records are updated.
The county saw a slight increase in drug deaths over 2022 where the coroner's office had 51 reported drug deaths and 56 in 2021.
Commissioner Robert Tebay asked if those who were registered voters were taken off the voter rolls. Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales said they were.
There are also more deaths as a result of falls, but nine are the ones St. Clair's office is involved with.
St. Clair said many drug overdoses involve a "cocktail" of different drugs mixed together including fentanyl, heroin, meth and others.
"It is usually not just isolated to just one drug," St. Clair said. "The drug deaths are the majority of what we do."
There were as few as five drug deaths in May 2023 and as many as 20 in July 2023 that his office was involved in.
St. Clair said the county lost a total of 1,144 Wood County residents who died here or elsewhere that were reported to their office.
St. Clair currently has his office in the old Wood County Sheriff's Building that will be demolished when the new Wood County Resiliency Center is completed.
County officials said there may be space for his office at the new Wood County 911 Center.
In other business, Wood County Solid Waste Director Sarah Robinson appeared before the commission to give an update on their operations.
The organization recently moved its offices to 405 19th St. in the building that was once home to the Community Bulletin Board.
They are actively scheduling programs for this year.
"We remain committed to being an active partner within the community," Robinson said.
They are involved in a number of area cleanups and will be doing some around Erickson Field, Boaz, Waverly and Belleville.
They will also be working on doing a pesticide and household chemical collection event in order to dispose of them.
They are on social media, radio, newspaper and more to advertise the various events and collections they are doing.
"People are used to the events we are having and call in and ask about them," Robinson said. "We get a lot of calls."
She is also working with the Department of Corrections and having inmates doing roadside cleanups in the area. She said she never has any problems with the inmates and many are eager to get out and work.
They also help provide gloves and trashbags to groups interested in doing neighborhood cleanups.
They are maintaining a grant program that allows for the purchase and donation of various picnic tables, benches, trash bins and more which are made of recycled items. One of the recent examples was purchasing chairs for Discovery World in Parkersburg that were made of recycled Coca-Cola bottles.
"As you might expect we receive more requests than we can fund, thus, we wanted to also offer our government partners the ability to order recycled furniture through our office at cost," Robinson said.
The Solid Waste Authority can facilitate placing orders, arrange shipping and payments for their partners at cost, which will significantly lower the retail cost.
"We believe this could be beneficial to all our local government entities," Robinson said.
Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com