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Current Belmont County Coroner Amanda Fisher is seeking reelection in the upcoming race against former coroner Troy Balgo.
BARNESVILLE — The only contested race in Belmont County on the Nov. 5 ballot is for the office of Belmont County coroner, and the incumbent faces a challenge from her predecessor.
First elected in 2020, Barnesville resident and current Coroner Amanda Fisher is seeking reelection. Fisher, who was raised in Belmont and graduated from Union Local in 2003, is a doctor of chiropractic and a certified chiropractic sports physician. She graduated from Northeast College of Health Sciences in 2011 and has been practicing in Belmont County since 2013.
Fisher said what originally piqued her interest in becoming coroner was her first semester of studying anatomy and physiology.
“We had our labs and we learned our anatomy and labs by doing full body dissections, and my first cadaver when we were in the chest cavity I actually found the blood clot that was the cause of death for the pulmonary embolism,” she said. “That really got my wheels turning and I thought, ‘This is pretty amazing to be able to discover someone’s cause of death.’”
She added that after her epiphany, she began researching the qualifications to become a coroner.
“I knew that I wouldn’t be a forensic pathologist because I wasn’t on that path, but I took a lot of electives, a lot of different pathologies and forensic osteology courses that would help me in the realm of becoming a coroner,” Fisher said.
Fisher’s reason for seeking reelection is that she believes she and her team have poured their hearts into her first term and worked to get the coroner’s office to meet standards she believes it already should have been meeting. She believes she was able to get the office on the right track in terms of record keeping and practices that she alleged weren’t happening under the previous administration.
“When I got elected, one of the big projects I wanted to try and pursue was getting a physical location for our county’s morgue,” she said.
In 2019, East Ohio Regional Hospital closed for a time until it reopened under new ownership. At that time, EORH was the location of the Belmont County morgue. While the hospital was closed, the county struggled to find a new location for its morgue.
“When East Ohio closed, they needed to find a solution and find a temporary morgue,” Fisher said. “At the time, a small shed was purchased from Smith’s Sawdust Studio in Bethesda and that was supposed to be a temporary location for the coolers for our morgue. This shed then got moved to the St. Clairsville Health Department parking lot and, unfortunately, that is where it has been since that time.”
Fisher said in her first week in office she met with the Belmont County commissioners about finding a permanent solution for the county’s morgue. A new permanent site for the morgue will be at the future Belmont County Health Department location, construction of which is no being planned..
“We will have a morgue where we are able to do things that need to be done in private. Right now, unfortunately, with the morgue where it is when we unload and load, we’re out in the public. We’re right along (Ohio) 331, and anyone that’s in the parking lot can see us,” Fisher said. “But probably what I think is the most terrible is occasionally, loved ones will need to make a positive identification of someone. And if that person is not at a funeral home and they’re being held at the morgue, they have to meet us and we have to take them to the shed and I do not feel like that is a respectable place. It gives me a lot of mixed emotions when I have to have a family member at that location, so that has been one of my main concerns this entire term.”
She added that once the new location is built, the morgue will be on the bottom level and will have a bay that allows ambulances and hearses to load and unload discreetly, as well as a secondary entrance and exit for family members of the deceased so they won’t have to walk through the health department if they are required to come to the location to make a positive identification of the body.
Fisher said many people have asked why the morgue wasn’t moved to WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital. She said she was told that Barnesville Hospital doesn’t have coolers or the space to be able to accommodate a morgue.
Fisher said another accomplishment she is proud of is that all investigators at the coroner’s office are now national certified medicolegal death investigators. She believes it is crucial for the death investigators to be trained in a system that is nationally acceptable. She added that they are required to do continuing education.
She also mentioned that during her first term, she started working with multiple high schools and the Belmont County Concentrated Conduct Adjustment Program, or C-CAP, to host presentations on the dangers of fentanyl and how it’s mixed with other drugs that teenagers may not think it would be mixed with. She said she also tried to become a bridge between mental health services and people whose loved one recently died.
“When we first started, we noticed when somebody has someone in their family die, especially tragically where it’s a suicide or overdose, that the family is who is often left struggling,” Fisher said. “Oftentimes the family doesn’t know how to get help. They think that they either need insurance that covers these services and a lot of people don’t have great insurance plans. They don’t know that there are resources available to them at no costs.”
She added that she wants people to know there is no need to suffer in silence and that help is available.
Fisher said she isn’t a fan of political yard signs because they list a name but don’t inform voters on the stances and beliefs that particular candidate has. She added that she feels that the most effective way to campaign is to be present within the community and speak to as many people as she can.
“I’m a people person. I like to talk to people, as you can probably tell by this interview,” she joked. “My hope is that we’ve done such a great job the past four years that people will have noticed a change in our department and that will help me campaign without campaigning.”
She added that she is thankful she has been able to build solid relationships with local funeral homes, law enforcement and emergency medical services.
“They are all just so supportive. Unfortunately, you can be on a scene that might be a little uncomfortable or there might be some people there that are a bit unruly or loud, but when we have law enforcement there with us they treat me like I’m their daughter, sister or wife. I feel really safe when I have those people with me on the scene,” Fisher said. “I could not have had such a good first term without the support of those groups. I hope to continue those phenomenal relationships and continue to keep working with them.”
Fisher concluded, “If the people of Belmont County feel confident and have been happy with the changes, then I hope that they will let me continue to make those positive changes over another term.”
Fisher and her husband Lance live on a family farm in the Barnesville area with their two children, Luke who is 8 and Lydia who is 6. She said that she would not be able to accomplish any of the things she’s achieved without the support of her family.
“I have a rockstar husband,” Fisher said. “And I honestly think my kids are proud of their mom. At least I’m hoping that they see Mom has multiple roles and multiple jobs and they don’t really know anything different because when I first started in this term, they were 3 and 4.”