The county commissioners will hold a special meeting to discuss increasing the salary of Coroner William F. Young III to match that of the county's other row officers.

Wil White, county solicitor, explained at the Wednesday commissioners meeting that Young earns about $13,000 less than the other county row officers, which include the register of wills, clerk of orphans' court, recorder of deeds, prothonotary, treasurer, clerk of courts, controller, sheriff and the commissioners.

White said while the other row officers work regular business hours, the coroner is on call at all times, including weekends, holidays and overnight.

The meeting to gain public comment will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 in the meeting room near the planning department in the county government center annex.

The measure to increase the coroner's salary will be approved or denied by the commissioners at their regular meeting at 10 a.m. the following day.

White said the row officers earn about $86,600 per year, while the coroner's annual salary totals about $73,500.

Young said later Wednesday that he manages two part-time deputies and an office with a full-time secretary.The county morgue is at his business, Young Funeral Home, so he mostly uses the office there for coroner-related office work, Young said.He said he could be called out at any time of the day or night on any day of the year, especially since the coroner must be contacted when anyone who will be cremated dies inside the county.Young was awakened at 5 a.m. Wednesday by a hospice worker who needed to report the death of a cancer patient because the body would be cremated.That necessitated a call to the hospice service's office to get information on the deceased, the body's location, whether he or the person's doctor would sign the death certificate and other tasks.Another call might be on an overdose, another on a COVID-19 death and another on a vehicle crash.If the family of the decedent has not selected a funeral home where they want their loved one to be transported, Young or one of his deputies must go retrieve the body and take it to the morgue.“There are so many different circumstances, you could never explain them all,” Young said. “Nothing's ever the same.”Young said in 2020, he performed authorizations for 1,092 cremations, signed 256 death certificates, responded to 72 overdose deaths, released 500 bodies to funeral homes and opened his morgue for 130 autopsies.Autopsies, which are done at Young's morgue, are carried out by morticians contracted by the county.He said the coronavirus pandemic has necessitated more work on his part.Young said he usually completes about 40 cremation authorizations per month, but processed 168 in January.Young said he is so busy with county coroner tasks that other funeral directors conduct viewings and funerals at Young's Funeral Home.“The funeral home can never really depend on me,” he said.Young's late father, William F. Young Jr., was the county coroner for decades.“I went on my first call when I was 12,” Young said.

William Young