FLOYD COUNTY, Ind. — At 5203 Charlestown Road, just across the Floyd County line, there's a fire department starting fresh.
“The morale has done a 180," Tim Franklin said, chief of New Albany Township Fire Rescue. “We had board members here over the weekend just checking in, and crews are sitting around laughing and cutting up. Didn't see a whole lot of that.”
The building was occupied by New Chapel Fire, one of the arms of Utica Township Volunteer Firefighters Association, until May 31 at 6 p.m.
"They were still our bosses, and we actually assisted loading up what they want to load it up, because we did work for them," Franklin said. He and a majority of the new department were employed by New Chapel Fire.
Franklin was the "assistant chief" from 2019 until May 31, 2024.
New Chapel Fire recently lost its annual $1.4 million contract to provide fire service in New Albany Township as part of the fallout of the Jamey Noel investigation. Darrell Mills, who is the president of the fire district and decides who will provide fire service, said they learned of many contract violations during a recent audit.
RELATED: 'This is what must be done' | Judge raises former Indiana sheriff Jamey Noel's bond to $1.5 million
Mills said New Chapel had a policy to prioritize EMS runs for New Chapel EMS and would often not have a full fire crew available. They also requested financial documents from New Chapel's new management this spring, but didn't receive them.
“I call it a façade, which is harsh words," Mills said. “I think it was the image portrayed that they had full staffing for the fire department when the board would meet. But I think when we were gone, they would go back to doing their duties on the ambulances.”
Franklin proposed the idea to Mills to create New Albany Township Fire Rescue, this past weekend was their first as the responding agency. Franklin said they have responded to 13 calls as of Wednesday.
While Franklin and the new department are focused on the future, he recently became aware of something from the past.
During the State Board of Accounts investigation into UTVFA, new CEO Matt Owen told Franklin that he was listed as "director" on the agency's taxes in 2019, 2020 and 2022.
"I learned about it a month ago...but nothing was addressed to me about it from those in charge of the investigation," Franklin said.
In 2020 and 2022 the "signature of officer" section is blank. In 2019, someone else's signature is there. Franklin said he is very familiar with Jamey Noel's signature and believes it's his.
FOCUS found two other signatures of Jamey Noel from publicly-available documents, and the pair appear similar to the ones used on the UTVFA's tax returns.
Franklin said he has suffered no negative consequences from his name being on the forms.
“I don’t know why [Jamey Noel's] done a lot that he’s alleged to have done," he said.
Jamey Noel's attorney in his criminal case, Larry Wilder, did not respond to a request for comment in this story. The current leadership of UTVFA and New Chapel sent a statement over email:
"Since these documents are several years old now, New Chapel's current organizational leadership had no involvement in their preparations. That being said, the documents speak for themselves and illustrate just one more way in which Mr. Noel concealed various financial matters related to New Chapel from the other members of the organization's leadership. They represent yet another example of how Mr. Noel abused and betrayed the trust placed in him by so many people, and we look forward to him facing the full legal consequences of his actions," spokesperson S. Coy Travis said in part over email.
Franklin said this confusion is just another reason why he's happy the new department is moving forward.
“The people in New Albany Township should be happy as well, because they're now getting the dedicated fire service that they deserve and that they've been paying for," Franklin said.
New Albany Township Fire Rescue has 11 employees, and they're hoping to hire nine more to work the second station the fire district owns. That station is on Budd Road near the Duke Energy power plant.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.