One option on the table is closing the office and contracting with the Middlesex County Medical Examiner's Office.
TRENTON -- Mercer County's two medical examiners plan to retire at the end of this year and that has county officials mulling several options on the future of the office.
One option on the table is closing the office and contracting with the Middlesex County Medical Examiner's Office, which assumed Monmouth County's medical examiner duties earlier this year, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said Thursday.
Other options include joining one of the two state-run regional medical examiner offices, as well as hiring new medical examiners and expanding the Mercer office and possibly taking on another county's duties and becoming a regional office.
"Sharing services is driving this discussion," Hughes said.
Hughes said Dr. Raafat Ahmad and Dr. Daksha Shah both plan to retire at the end of 2016.
Dr. Raafat Ahmad and the autopsy table at the Mercer medical examiner's office in this file photo. Ahmad, who runs the office, has been with the county for 36 years and Shah, who is part time, is a 35-year veteran.
Ahmad earns an annual salary of $154,993.00 and Shah $54,500.
The office has a full-time clerical staff of two, plus contracted employees. If the county closes the office, Hughes said, they plan to reassign the two full-time employees to other county offices.
Hughes said leaders at the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Task Force recently toured Middlesex County's facility in North Brunswick - which Middlesex County describes as state-of-the-art.
It's the most geographically logical choice, Hughes said, because it's an adjoining county.
Middlesex County announced earlier this year they were absorbing all Monmouth County medical examiner duties as of April 1, and that autopsies and examinations would occur at their North Brunswick office.
Monmouth County will pay Middlesex $1.4 million annually as part of a 10-year agreement.
The two counties have had a relationship since 2009, when Middlesex County assumed administrative oversight of Monmouth County's medical examiner services.
Hughes said one of the issues in expanding the Mercer office is that it's currently on the grounds of the Trenton-Mercer Airport in Ewing.
Although the airport is county owned, the FAA requires the medical examiner's office to pay rent to the airport's owner - Mercer County - because it's performing a non-airport use on airport grounds.
Hughes called the setup a "complicated breaking even process."
No official plans have been drafted, and Hughes said his administration still needs to hammer out what it would cost Mercer to join the Middlesex/Monmouth arrangement.
Other offices that perform medical examiner services are the two state offices: the Northern Regional Medical Examiner Office, which serves Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Somerset counties, and the Southern Regional Medical Examiner Office, which covers Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties.
Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties operate a regional facility, as well as Morris, Sussex and Warren counties.
Hughes said his his overall goal is to present a plan to the county freeholder board that will control county taxes.
"We're taking a look at all the possibilities we have," Hughes said.
Earlier this year, Hughes announced he wanted to effectively close the Mercer County Correction Center in Hopewell Township and enter into an agreement with Hudson County, which would jail 600 inmates for Mercer County.
The plan, in which Mercer County would pay Hudson County about $21 million per year in a two-year contract, would lead to layoffs and was met with vehement opposition from correction officers and jail staffers.
Hughes has touted the plan as a $20 million savings for Mercer County once up and running.
In March, Mercer County decided to hire consultants to study two parts of its plan, which slowed the pace of the plan.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.