By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

CLANTON – Collins Chapel Fire Chief Shawn Carlisle has been released from the Chilton County Jail on a $10,000 bond after the Alabama Fire Marshal’s Office claimed he stole more than $20,000 from the fire department over the past few years.

Carlisle, who is 45 and lists an address on Chilton County 50 in Clanton, was arrested and booked into the Chilton County Jail on July 28 on one felony count of first-degree theft of property.

Carlisle was released from jail the same day he was arrested after he posted bond, and is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 30 at 8:30 a.m.

First-degree theft of property is a Class B felony, and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison upon conviction, according to Alabama law.

Carlisle’s arrest came after the state Fire Marshal’s Office launched an investigation into the fire department, which is based in Thorsby and serves portions of northern Chilton County, in late May.

During the investigation, the Fire Marshal’s Office allegedly discovered Carlisle was “cashing fire department checks at a local business.”

According to Chilton County District Court documents, Carlisle cashed numerous checks from the Collins Chapel Fire Department’s People’s Southern Bank tax-exempt account at a local business between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 17 of this year.

“Total amount taken from one account was in excess of $20,000,” read the State Fire Marshal’s Office complaint filed against Carlisle.

In the wake of Carlisle’s arrest, surrounding fire departments with mutual aid agreements with Collins Chapel are responding to calls in the area, said Chilton County 911 Director Dan Wright.

“I’ve not been told the official status of the Collins Chapel Fire Department and their response capability,” Wright said during a July 29 phone interview. “So until we hear otherwise, we are enacting our automatic aid plan.”

Chilton County Commission Chairman Allen Caton said the Commission has put a freeze on distributing money to the Collins Chapel Fire Department until the department seats a new board of directors, which is the same action the Commission took when similar allegations surfaced regarding the West Chilton Volunteer Fire Department in 2014.

By law, the Chilton County Commission collects county property tax and equally distributes a portion of it to volunteer fire departments in the county. Caton said the Commission acts as a “pass-through” for the money, and said oversight of each volunteer fire department falls on the departments’ boards of directors.

“The way the law is written, the County Commission is left out. The millage tax comes to our office and we divide it up equally and distribute it to the departments,” Caton said, noting the Collins Chapel Fire Department’s board currently is inactive. “If anything like this is going on, it falls back on the board of directors for that department.”

Caton said the law requires the volunteer fire departments to submit audits to the Commission each year, but said there is no provision for the Commission to force the departments to comply if they do not submit an audit.

“We strictly depend on them to provide it to us,” Caton said. “There should be greater accountability in place. This is the second time in two years something like this has happened.”

Caton said the Chilton County Firefighters Association is planning to hold a meeting soon to seat a new board of directors for Collins Chapel.

“It is hard-earned taxpayer money that these people are stealing,” Caton said. “I personally hope they get the stiffest punishment possible.”