Commissioners are working with Butler County Coroner William F. Young III to determine how best to complete a badly needed upgrade of the morgue.

The $2.5 million in the capital improvement budget has existed for some time, said commissioners Chairman Leslie Osche, but the commissioners are aware that Young’s facility is overtaxed with the increased death rate due to overdose deaths related to the opioid crisis.

“We anticipate something coming within the next year,” Osche said of a fix for Young’s space issues.

“Storing bodies over a period of time is a problem,” she said.

The county contracts with Young to use Young Funeral Home in Butler as a morgue. Young’s office is in the former unemployment office west of the county prison.

Commissioner Kim Geyer said other factors have contributed to the necessity to expand the morgue.

“We are the fastest-growing county in not only Western Pennsylvania but the Commonwealth,” Geyer said. “Coupled with the opioid crisis, that is the combination (that affects the morgue).”