JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Clark County's ambulance service is currently provided by New Chapel EMS, but as that department's future remains in flux, the city of Jeffersonville believes it can save money and lives by adding its own service.

The contract between the county and New Chapel EMS runs through December 2025, Mayor Mike Moore said Wednesday. New Chapel has been tied to controversy after its former CEO and former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel was charged with using department money for personal use.

Moore believes it's time for a change.

"Everything that's transpired in the last seven or eight months has led us to where we are here today," he said Wednesday. "We're inside that contract, but I think it's time, as mayor of Jeffersonville, we started looking elsewhere."

Noel was arrested in November 2023 on 15 felony charges related to fraud, misconduct, theft, ghost employment and public corruption after a nearly yearlong investigation that is ongoing. Another 10 charges were filed against him in early February, including theft and tax evasion. Last week, six new charges were filed against Noel for theft and money laundering.

Christina Glidewell, a Jeffersonville woman who was diagnosed with heart failure in 2018, had a life-threatening medical emergency several years ago and learned then that EMS isn't always the most reliable option.

"My husband had to call fire and EMS to get me to the hospital," Glidewell said Wednesday, adding that firefighters were the first on the scene.

"I would not be here if it wasn't for them."

So with the future in flux, Moore is asking a state financial advisory firm to crunch the numbers and tell him what it'd cost to supply their own service.

"With everything that's going on now and the environment, we need to do this," Moore said.

Glidewell knows it won't be cheap, but she believes the change could save lives.

"Honestly, I think it would speed it up a lot," she said. "I know if something were to happen, they're immediately there."

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