Merrillville residents may have longer to wait for a response to their 911 calls -- at least for a while, local officials say.

The town's shorthanded Emergency Medical Services staff hasn't been able to handle all of its calls and is relying on Crown Point Fire-Rescue to pick up the slack.

Merrillville's requests for mutual aid from the neighboring municipality have escalated in recent weeks because of paramedics on sick leave and others leaving, local officials said. Merrillville announced last month that it would privatize its EMS.

Town Manager Tim Brown said Merrillville is down five of its 12 paramedics. Three are on some form of sick leave, and two have left, he said. The town also had electrical problems with one of its ambulances but has since fixed the problem, he said.

"It's just one of those things that happens, but it happened at the wrong time when we had another unit out," Brown said. "I'd be at nine people if not for two health concerns."

Crown Point's paramedics and EMTs are taking the emergency calls Merrillville's depleted staff can't handle.

Mark Baumgardner Sr., Crown Point division chief of operations, said the number of mutual aid responses has increased slightly since last November.

There were 46 ambulance assist calls in 2007, he said.

Fire Chief Greg DeLor said helping Merrillville is not impacting Crown Point's response to its own residents because the city has two ambulances handled by staff and a third that can be manned by volunteers.

"This is just our time to pay them back," he said.

DeLor said Merrillville was coming out to Crown Point nearly every day to field emergency calls before the city obtained its second ambulance in 2000.

"I see this being a short-term thing until Prompt is up and operational in February," he said.

Prompt Ambulance Service was chosen in December by the Merrillville Town Council to take over for the municipal EMS.

Town Councilman Richard Hardaway said the town will save at least $315,000 a year by privatizing the service.

Crown Point's mutual aid calls may continue to increase as Merrillville gets closer to its final transition to Prompt by Feb. 1.

Brown acknowledged other town paramedics have been looking for jobs, although Prompt offered to hire the municipal paramedics. He said a proposed contract will go before the Town Council at its workshop Wednesday.

Municipal paramedics who were opposed to the privatization said quality in EMS response and care would suffer because of the change.