New Chapel EMS loses bid to provide ambulance service in Floyd County

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- The relationship is over. Floyd County officials voted Wednesday to remove New Chapel EMS as the county's ambulance provider.  

The ambulance service is restructuring it's leadership after firing former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel, who previously served as chief of New Chapel Fire & EMS.

Pulling up stakes for the EMS company is not going to take much time, as most of their ambulances sit in public parking lots waiting for runs. On Wednesday night, a three-member council voted them out. 

In order to continue providing ambulance service to Floyd County, the company needed to provide financial documents — but they didn't. 

Floyd County Commissioners President Al Knable, who is serving on the EMS advisory board, said “that baggage, I wish them well, I hope they survive this endeavor, I think they basically disqualified themselves by not bring forth strong financial information.” 

In February, Matt Owen, the current leader of New Chapel EMS, told WDRB he was waiting on the results of an internal audit.

“So, the organization is currently preparing for an internal audit, a complete third-party audit so we are going to rely on that before we can provide anything with any confidence,” Owen said at the time. 

Owen left the building Wednesday night in a hurry and has not yet responded to requests for comment. 

Last week, New Chapel EMS sued Noel, the former head of the company, for raking up millions of dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle on New Chapel credit cards.  

New Chapel is paid $220,000 a year to provide ambulance service in Floyd County. The winning bid, from AmeriPro Health, is significantly higher and could be rejected by the Floyd County Council. 

"If they outright say we don't have the finances in the county to put this contract together as written, they I really need to know from them what options we have financially because then we have to start the process over,” Knable said.