A different ambulance service has opened shop on South Mercer Street in Greenville and is asking for borough council’s and township supervisors’ blessings.

Life Support of Mercer County, a nonprofit division of Grove City Rescue Life Support, has purchased Eastern Medical Ambulance Services’ Greenville area operations for an undisclosed price, a Tuesday memo to municipal officials and news media said.

The purchase of Eastern Medical Ambulance, which was effective Monday morning, does not affect Eastern Medical’s medical equipment and home care division, said Larry Daniels, Life Support office manager. The medical equipment and home care division will continue under Eastern Medical, he said.

Established in 1978, Life Support has stations in Grove City, Mercer and now in Greenville, the memo said. "The intentions of Life Support is to provide advanced life support ambulance coverage for Greenville and the surrounding area, as well as Grove City and Mercer," the memo said.

Although the sale is confirmed, Life Support is not on the 911 dispatching rotation for Greenville and surrounding townships, said James Thompson, Mercer County public service director.

Thompson said he is waiting to hear from township supervisors and Greenville council to request Life Support be included for emergencies in their municipalities.

Prior to the sale, Lifeforce Ambulance in Hempfield Township was the only other ambulance service provider for Greenville and some of the surrounding townships.

Peter D. Nicoloff Jr., Greenville borough manager, said council will not request Life Support on the 911 rotation until the Grove City-based ambulance service makes a presentation to council.

A Life Support representative was expected to speak to Pymatuning Township supervisors at their Thursday meeting. A Life Support force representative spoke to Hempfield Township supervisors Tuesday. They tabled a decision to place the new service on rotation. West Salem Township supervisors also are to decide if Life Support should provide emergency services for their township residents.

Rumors and misinformation about Eastern Medical Service’s ability to respond to emergencies preceded the ambulance service sale. Thompson said Eastern Medical was suspended from the 911 dispatching rotation for 24 hours on Monday because Mercer County 911 had no confirmation of the ambulance service acquisition or what was going on with Eastern Medical.

Daniels said Tuesday there was no disruption of service by Eastern Medical. On Monday, Wendy Rhoades, Eastern Medical general manager, put down rumors, saying Eastern Medical did not interrupt its services.

In its memo, Life Support "would like to apologize for any false rumors and inconvenience this may have caused."

Life Support will keep on its staff the nine Eastern Medical employees at Greenville, the memo said.

Also, the 3,000 Eastern Medical members will be covered by Life Support and will receive new Life Support membership cards, the memo said.

Daniels said he did not know what prompted the ambulance service purchase. He said David Logero, president of Eastern Medical Services, contacted the Grove City-based ambulance service three weeks ago about selling the Greenville ambulance station to Life Support.

Logero was unavailable for comment Tuesday.