Jan. 3—FLOYD COUNTY — New Albany Township Fire is not formally pursuing any changes to its fire service at this time, but its board is monitoring the situation in light of recent felony charges against Jamey Noel of New Chapel Fire.

The district contracts with the New Chapel Fire Department for fire services.

Darrell Mills is the chair of the board responsible for tax disbursements in the New Albany Township Fire District. He said the board will “look at everything with a microscopic eye.”

He does not expect the board to make any decisions until more information becomes available, including the results of an ongoing internal audit and a routine audit by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

“When we get those finished, then we’ll make a decision on whether we need to look elsewhere for any other possible [agency] depending on what we uncover,” Mills said.

He said his main concern is “to make sure we have proper fire coverage.”

“The fire protection right now — there needs to be no concern,” Mills said. “We get information. We check the log sheets, and I think everything’s going as normal.”

The recent charges against Jamey Noel, the former Clark County Sheriff and co-founder of New Chapel Fire & EMS, have raised concerns among some local officials about how to proceed with the emergency services provider.

Noel is facing 15 felony counts, including charges of theft, corrupt business influence and ghost employment.

The contract for New Chapel Fire Department’s services in New Albany Township expires in March 2025.

Floyd County Commissioner John Schellenberger emphasizes that the New Albany Township Fire board’s responsibility is to “decide what kind of fire protection they believe is best for their township.”

“It’s still the New Albany Township Fire District, and they have a board of seven people,” he said. “They are the ones that meet at least on a quarterly basis, and they are the ones who decide on fire protection. They can very easily say ‘hey, we want to start our own fire department,’ but they elected to go ahead and contract with New Chapel.”

While New Albany Township’s fire services are contracted out, the other township fire districts in Floyd County operate their own fire services. The Highlander Fire Protection District serves Lafayette and Greenville townships, and Georgetown Township has its own fire services.

Franklin Township contracts with Lanesville Volunteer Fire Department for fire protection.

The township fire district owns the two firehouses in New Albany Township, as well as the fire equipment. New Chapel operates the fire stations on Budd Road and Charlestown Road in New Albany.

“The taxpayers of New Albany township own the firehouse, and we own all the fire equipment and all that type of stuff,” Mills said. “So we [do] the maintenance and take care of all that throughout the year. That’s separate from the contract.”

“New Chapel Fire [Department] — they have their own board for who they make chief, who they hire, who they fire, what their payroll is, what they get paid,” Mills said. “All we do is we get our tax disbursements from the county council — we get two stipends a year, and then we give two stipends a year per our contract to the New Chapel Fire District.”

He said if there are “any improprieties” found in the audits, “then we’ll take the appropriate action.”

“We’re going to wait until we see all of our findings and go from there,” he said. “We’ll see what SBOA finds, and our secretary-treasurer is going over all of our expenses to make sure that we’ve got our bases covered. With all the controversy, we want to check to make sure we’re doing everything properly.”

One of his priorities is reviewing inventory related to “any maintenance, repairs or purchases of equipment.”

“If we’ve got any improprieties, we’ll correct those and take the appropriate action, whether it be [to] replace fire contractual services or the way we do our auditing system — whatever we need to do,” Mills said. “Maybe we need additional software, but these self-audits and internal audits and outside audits are all just to make sure that the taxpayers are getting more bang for the buck, and I’m all for it.”

He also plans to “keep an eye” on the situation related to the charges against Noel, but he emphasizes that it is New Chapel Fire Department’s responsibility to determine leadership.

Mills said Noel has served as the chief for New Chapel’s fire services in New Albany Township, but as he takes a leave of absence, Matt Owen has stepped in as interim chief.

“That’s their responsibility in managing, and we don’t have anything to do with the fact that Jamey Noel’s a fire chief at New Chapel Fire Department,” he said.

Mills notes that New Chapel EMS is also separate from the New Chapel Fire Department, and the New Albany Township contracts specifically with the fire department, not the EMS service.

“We don’t have a problem with New Chapel ambulances being at our firehouse if they need to get in and out of the weather or whatever, but we have nothing to do with their financing, their funds or anything,” he said.

Floyd County has a contract with New Chapel EMS for ambulance services in the county outside the city limits of New Albany, including New Albany Township. The Floyd County Commissioners are currently seeking proposals from EMS providers as they prepare to enter a new contract with expanded services.

For years, county officials have debated whether to go with a different EMS provider, with some voicing concerns about New Chapel’s run times and quality of service.