Death certificate and cremation fees increase in Wood County

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (WFHR / WIRI) – Death will get slightly more costly, under a small fee increase for the Wood County coroner’s office. 

The Wood County Board unanimously signed off on increases to cremation and death certificate fees at their December meeting.

 ”The coroner’s office is not someplace that is, you know, profit-driven or profit-motivated,” says Wood County Board Chair Lance Pliml in conversation with WFHR.

“It is somewhere where we need to break even for those services. And as those costs have increased from all the providers, we have to cover those costs.”

Pliml says without the increases, the coroner’s office could face a potential budget shortfall. 

The increases are modest. Death certificate signing and cremation permits will go up by three dollars each, from $112 to $115. In total, the fee increases are expected to add another $3,700 a year for the coroner’s office.

“ We were fine this past year going in, but as we see increased costs on cremation and all those other services, we have to adjust our costs to be able to cover that,” says Pliml.

Death statistics

In a memo recommending the change, Wood County Coroner David Patton said the costs of everything, from  body bags to postage, is increasing. Still, he says the increases will keep Wood County “in the middle of the pack” when compared with other funeral homes. 

As of Dec. 2, there were 1,103 deaths in Wood County in 2025. Of that number, 243 – that’s 22 percent – were related to natural causes. 18 deaths were caused by falls, nine were death by suicide, two were homicides, two were suspected accidental carbon monoxide poisonings, and one was a suspected overdose. 

The coroner’s office signed 284 death certificates and 829 cremation permits, also as of Dec. 2.

At the same meeting last month, the Wood County Board also approved a plan for releasing opioid reimbursement money and another plan from the highway department to buy property.