If there are reasons Carmi Township Trustees didn’t want Chula Fleming on the board as a fellow trustee, they’re not airing them publicly. They got what they wanted though Wednesday night at a special meeting to seat a new trustee. At the September 9th meeting, former Trustee Mike Baxley announced he was resigning and recommended Fleming to be nominated for the post citing that she also ran for the position, was qualified, and was the next highest vote getter in the April 17, 2025 election. After Fleming’s nomination in October, a nomination was also made for Cheyenne Long. That led to Greg Stewart, attorney for the Township, to check into whether Long fulfilled the requirements set forth to be seated as a Trustee. Long didn’t meet those requirements and so the board had to call a special meeting Wednesday, November 5th or voters would have to choose.
Trustee Brad Chapman would have to call in to the meeting as he wasn’t available to attend in person. He nominated Fleming. Township Supervisor Pam Deig nominated Casey Coale. Chapman voted for Fleming while Deig, Tim Scates, and Shelly Buchanan voted for Coale. Coale ran and lost to Township Road Commissioner Chris McEwing in April. He’s also married to Township Clerk Tammy Coale. Assuming Coale meets the qualifications, and it appears he does, he’s expected to be seated at the next Township meeting scheduled for November 18th.
After the meeting, we got reaction from Fleming, Baxley, and Casey Coale. Baxley says he nominated Fleming based on her interest and engagement.
I suggested Chula because Chula ran for the position and she came up short, but she ran for the position. Chula has even before the election took place, she came to the meetings for I don’t know how many meetings before because she was interested in running and I thought she was an excellent candidate for the job. She’s the secretary for the White County Republicans and she does a tremendous job. It was my thoughts that because she put her name out there to do the job, she was a suitable candidate for it. Not to mention even after she came up short, she still came to the meetings after that and that says a lot about a person.
Baxley said he was very disappointed the board would do that. When it comes to a reason why the trustees went a different direction, Baxley said it would be speculation and it’s not worth him mentioning.
Fleming says she feels like it should’ve never come down to a special meeting in November when she was nominated and had a vote at the October meeting. Despite that, she says she supports Casey Coale.
I feel that I’m extremely qualified and I meet all the requirements as a Republican. I felt like this should’ve been handled at the last meeting. I was the only real candidate that was qualified and I did get a vote and I thought that should be enough. I understand legal things had to happen. They had to go through the process. I’m happy for Casey. He’s a great guy. I support him. I just don’t quite understand how it happened the way it happened.
Fleming says she didn’t get any feedback from those on the board as to why they continued to look for another choice. She’ll stay busy. In addition to her role as a precinct committeeperson, Fleming is also a board member with the White County Senior Citizens Center, and the campaign coordinator for Angela Evans who’s running against Dave Severin. She plans to stay plugged into the community she loves and will look for other opportunities to serve.
Coale, for his part, said while he’s been attending Township meetings that he wasn’t expecting his nomination. He’s happy to serve though and looking forward to the challenge.
I will be active with whatever they need me to do. I’m going to hit the ground running. I want to make sure I understand what projects are what and if it’s something that’s going to benefit, then we just go from there and see how that works out. I can’t speak for anybody in there, but you’ve been around me enough to know I’m pretty forward with my speech. It’s just me. It’s going to be an experience getting my feet wet a little more into politics and more of an understanding of what it is. Like I said, it’s more about what I can do to help the community because that’s what it’s about anymore.