Greenville council Tuesday put a decision on Grove City Area Ambulance Service, Greenville Division, on hold for 30 days.

The ambulance service asked council to include it on the dispatching rotation for Mercer County 911.

To keep competition fair, 911 uses the rotation list when callers do not request specific ambulance services. However, local municipal officials must ask that services be placed on that list.

On March 5, Grove City Area Ambulance and Rescue bought Eastern Medical Ambulance amid rumors that Eastern Medical was about to shut down its ambulance service in the Greenville area.

For the last week and a half, Grove City Area Ambulance has responded in the borough when callers asked for Eastern Medical, but not to 911 emergency calls, said Gary Hartman, public relations officer for Grove City Area Ambulance and Rescue, which also serves the Grove City and Mercer areas.

The only other service in much of the Greenville area is Life Force in Hempfield Township.

"I’m all for competition. It makes our community stronger," Councilman Thomas L. McMurdy said Tuesday. "But I am concerned about the way things were done. We are not prepared to vote on this tonight."

"I can’t vote on anything when things have changed as quickly as they have," added Councilman Bryan D. Shannon.

Council members said they are not opposed to the service responding to emergency calls in Greenville.

"We want to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed before making a decision," explained Councilman Michael A. D’Alfonso.

One of the details is the name, D’Alfonso said. The service initially referred to itself as Life Support of Mercer County, which could be confused with Life Force, he said during a council agenda meeting last Thursday.

A check with EMMCO West, which oversees ambulance services in this region, showed that the ambulance service cannot change its name to Life Support of Mercer County without changing its state license, said Councilman Earl A. Butterfield.

The name was one of a lot of details that had to be worked out, Hartman acknowledged. To avoid the legal expense and confusion, the ambulance service has chosen to keep the name Grove City Area Life Support, Greenville Division, he said.

"This may seem under the table to you, but we wanted to save jobs and still provide ambulance service here and that’s what we have done in the past week and a half," Hartman said.