To borrow from an old comedy sketch, Leader Sunoco is going to “pump, you up.” After almost eight months, the service station at Route 1 and Station Way Road in the village of Chadds Ford, is all the way back to pumping gas as well as doing maintenance and repairs.
And while Jim and Dan Leader aren’t the comedic body-building characters Hans and Franz, they’re pumped to get that part of the business back up and running again. Gasoline service stopped on Sept. 1 because of the flooding from Hurricane Ida. The pumps were underwater.
Supply chain and transportation interruptions delayed the delivery of the new pumps, but they finally showed up and were installed on April 18. On April 26, the pumps and point-of-sale system were properly synced. Shortly after 3 p.m., the price sign was illuminated, and the station was back in business.
Ironically, neither Jim nor Dan Leader were there at the time. Jim had to leave for an appointment and Dan was home after taking his wife and newborn baby daughter home from the hospital.
Before leaving, however, Jim Leader said it was a relief knowing some normalcy was returning.
“I’m just glad we’re getting back up, finally, after almost eight months,” he said.
But long-time employee Valerie Smith was there. She’s the one who threw the switch to light the new price sign. That sign was wiped out in December when a truck went out of control one Sunday morning and plowed through the station.
Smith, too, was excited. “It’s awesome. It feels good to be pumping gas again. I missed my regular customers.”
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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