A semi-retired South Bend funeral director announced this week that he is running in the St. Joseph County coroner race during the May primary election.

Michael McGann, vice president of McGann Hay Funeral Homes, will challenge incumbent and fellow Democrat Randy Magdalinski, according to the South Bend Tribune.

If elected, McGann said he would look into creating a forensic center in St. Joseph County so that autopsies could be performed locally. Right now, bodies needing an autopsy are sent to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.

McGann told the Tribune that he would also write job descriptions for deputy coroners and require deputy coroners to respond to the scene of every death that doesn’t involve natural causes with a doctor present.

Magdalinski was elected in 2007 and told the Tribune that he hopes voters give him a second term in next year’s election.

Read what he had to say about the changes McGann would like to see in the coroner’s office in the full story from the South Bend Tribune.