(KAIR)--Atchison County Commissioner Jeff Schuele has stepped down as Commission Chairman.

The resignation was called for by Commissioner Henry Pohl moments before a final vote Tuesday on the purchase of property for a new EMS facility for the county. Pohl says he questioned how Schuele handled the purchase, starting with the initial vote earlier this month. He says that “Jeff did a bunch of unethical things. He kind of disregarded the 2-1 vote and started just going out on his own and putting a survey online that was totally bogus and I'll tell you why. I filled it out like I lived in the city, and I filled one out like I lived in the county...so how many people voted more than once? I have no value to that survey at all. He went and hired an inspector on his own, which wasn't bad, but that should have been discussed, and this has just been building up. He thought he was a commissioner of one instead of a commissioner of three.”

Pohl also believes that Schuele had other reasons for pushing to have the facility moved closer to the city as he thinks that “the city wanted to get involved with the ambulance service. The county would lose its say, and they saw it as a revenue resource and that's why Jeff pushed for this...that's why I asked for his resignation, and I more or less told him that if he did not resign, that I would make a motion and have him removed of his chairmanship.”

Schuele says the he feels that he did not act unethically in the matter, and is not taking the resignation personally saying that “yes I did disagree with the purchase of property, and do not believe there will be any cost savings as we have to aquire property instead of maybe looking at a couple of different options to save taxpayer's dollars...and I did my part ethically to get public input and not make a rushed decision, and in order to progress the commission forward...and to keep friendships.”

Following Schuele's resignation, Commissioner Eric Noll nominated Pohl as Commission Chairman, and Pohl nominated Noll as Vice Chairman. Both nominations were seconded and passed on a 3-0 vote.

Commissioners then voted 2-1 to purchase the property, located along U.S. Highway 59, southwest of the city of Atchison.