Bearcat Ambulance gets state license to operate in Bentleyville area
ELLSWORTH – A newly formed ambulance service has received its state license to answer emergency calls in the Bentleyville area, which lost its ambulance service in March.
Bearcat Emergency Medical Services is expected to be fully operational Monday after receiving its vehicle seals Friday at the company’s Ellsworth base station at 93 S. Pine St., said Jason Cole, who owns the business with his brother, Greg.
“We’re good to go,” Jason Cole said.
He said the service was permitted to answer calls Friday, but needed to obtain its scanner tones from Washington County 911.
The financially troubled Fort Cherry Ambulance Service pulled out of eight municipalities in the Bentleyville area March 5, and those communities reached out to other services to send ambulances their way from Monongahela, Washington and Brownsville.
Jason Cole said former state Sen. Tim Solobay and current state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, helped to speed up the process to get Bearcat licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Bearcat will initially serve Ellsworth, Bentleyville, Cokeburg and Somerset Township, and plans to offer its services to Marianna and East Bethlehem Township. Other municipalities in the area will also have the option to contract with Bearcat for emergency services, Jason Cole said