Heroes Bar & Grill on Route 1 can now have outdoor dining. Concord Township Council granted its approval with multiple conditions during the council’s May 13 meeting, two weeks after the short, 10-minute conditional use hearing on April 29.
Council also heard from the Concordville Fire and Protection Association regarding the closing of Crozer Chester Hospital.
The vote to approve outdoor dining for Heroes was a unanimous 4-0, with three members absent. Among the absent were Council President Dominic Pileggi, Co-Vice President John Crossan, and member Colleen Morrone. Co-Vice President John Gillespie chaired the meeting.
Approval came with 17 conditions, some are bureaucratic or housekeeping in nature, while others are functional. Outdoor dining is permitted April 1 through Nov. 1, with hours of operation between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8 a.m. and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
An outdoor bar is prohibited, but patrons may drink alcoholic beverages while seated at the outdoor tables. There may be no more than 10 tables, and seating is limited to 40 people. Live marketing or live entertainment is also prohibited, as is smoking. There must be a hostess for the outdoor area on duty during the prescribed hours of operation.
Other business
• The closing of Crozer Chester Hospital became a topic of discussion during a report by Deputy Fire Chief Joe Hope from the Concordville Fire & Protection Association. He said the situation is an ongoing concern.
“The big thing the fire company is faced with at this point is the Crozer closing and how that’s affecting EMS response in the township. While we’re not directly affected, because our relationship with Riddle Hospital has stayed the same, and we are continuing to try to supplement with full and part-time staff to cover emergency calls.”
However, Hope said, Concordville can’t control the emergency room wait times at Riddle and Chester County hospitals. Wait times may get longer because there’s one less hospital available to take emergency patients.
“We’re going to do our best and ask the township and residents to be patient with us as we navigate through this. We’re going to find a way to make sure we provide the services,” Hope said.
He explained that a patient brought to a hospital in an ambulance can’t simply be dropped off and the ambulance departs. The ambulance can’t leave until there’s an emergency room bed available, and the patient is properly checked in. Until then, the patient stays on the ambulance’s gurney. Hope said the wait time could be 40 minutes or four hours.
Following questions from Council member Vinita Deshmukh, Hope said people should try using urgent care facilities as much as possible, but also said to call 911 if they think it’s an emergency.
“Don’t anticipate that calling 911 and going by ambulance is going to get you seen any sooner…Cautious use of the EMS system, cautious use of 911. If you’re in doubt, call 911. We don’t want anyone not calling it, but our biggest thing is [having] the community being patient with us.”
Before addressing the Crozer situation, Hope gave a short breakdown of Concordville’s actions for the first four months of the year.
From Jan. 1 through April 30, he said, Concordville responded to 415 fire and rescue calls, 218 (53 percent) being in Concord Township. EMS calls for the same time period totaled 1,394, with 884 (63 percent) being in Concord.
• During the meeting, Council also gave recognition to several groups and people. Groups recognized were the Garnet Valley High School Basketball team for being Central League champions and the Garnet Valley Ice Hockey team for being state champions.
Council also recognized Rob Kilburn for his 47 years as part of the township’s Public Works Department, Virginia Hayes for achieving the Girl Scout Gold Award, and Susan Sternberg, who recently retired as the executive director of the Rachel Kohl Library. Sternberg became the director in 2017 and retired on May 2.
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.
