Leicester – The longtime fire chief at Leicester Fire Department is gone, and allegations of fraud, insurance laps, firings, and even alleged investigation by Haywood County Sheriff’s Office of one of the former firefighters sexting a minor.
Those are some of the allegations going on that are making residents say, “What is going on at Leicester Fire Department?” The extent of the allegations fraud has to do with training logs submitted when firefighters were supposed to be in training but were not. If true, these logs would be defrauding the taxpayers of the fire district. Tribune/Skyline News is withholding the name of the person alleged to have done this until if and when charges are filed.
Allegations that a former firefighter had filed a cancer claim only to find out that their insurance with the department had lapsed is another claim.
Less severe allegations of insubordination toward the Interim Chief Travis Aulderdge, formerly of Asheville Fire Department, where officers and firefighters have written derogatory messages about Aulderdge on the whiteboard of the station.
Many in the community believe Aulderdge is there to turn the Leicester Fire Department into an Asheville Fire Department (FD), which seems to not coincide with the fact that Aulderdge has a lawsuit against Asheville FD and is banned from all their property.
The situation got so bad that some firefighters wrote a letter of support to the fire department board for the interim chief, who, by the way, several members of the department’s board resigned during the recent upheaval after former Chief Ted Godleski left the department.
Tribune/Skyline News contacted the former chief to find out what he had to say about the allegations and resignation. Godleski first said in a phone conversation when asked if he had resigned and then took it back and resigned again, “I’ll just say that’s incorrect.”
He later said in a text message when he was asked if he would like to respond to some of the allegations, “No, I do not want a chance to address these allegations for the reason I have already stated. My advice is the same as I told you on Monday in reference to talking to the board of directors.”
There have also been allegations of hazing toward firefighters who signed the support letter for Interim Chief Aulderdge.
At least one officer and a firefighter have been terminated from the department because of the happenings there.
Tribune/Skyline News tried contacting at least two people with the Leicester Fire Department to get comments, including one board member, who did return our call and asked us to submit our questions via email. As of press time, we have not gotten a reply.
Still, when residents hoped to learn what was happening at the board’s monthly meeting in January, the meeting was suddenly canceled. The public portion, anyway, as the board still had a closed-door meeting.
Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing story, and we will bring you updates as they become available. Chad Nesbitt also contributed to this story.