A Fort Worth bar owner who had butted heads with the city over the past year is now partnering with the city to keep people safe and warm.
Chris Polone has reopened The Rail Club Live, not in defiance of any statewide mandate this time, but rather to provide a warm place for people to stay.
“When things go to hell here in Fort Worth, we’re going to do everything we can to answer the call,” says Polone.
The Rail Club has an advantage of being located between a police station and an EMS station, so that shields the club from any power outages.
“We are absolutely blessed to have power, heat, running water, (and the) plumbing’s working,” Polone says.
That’s certainly good news for Troy, who lost power to his house just before 8:00 Monday morning.
“The temperature (inside the house) when we left a little while ago was 49 degrees,” says Troy.
Troy’s wife, Christina, says they’ve had to bundle up inside their own home.
“We’ve had to wear layers of clothes,” Christina says, “(and) put extra bedding on our bed to stay warm.”
Over the summer, amid Governor Abbott’s executive order requiring bars to remain closed amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, Polone opened his club in defiance of that order.
That has led to the club having its TABC license suspended, which has put the business in financial peril.
“We’re broke as a joke because of the shutdowns,” says Polone; “and we reached out to the community for help, and they answered.”
Several other people are pitching in to help.
“Countless Rail Club members came through, donating food, toilet paper, water,” Polone says.
Polone says he’ll keep his club open as long as necessary.
“We’d love to encourage anybody who needs help not to freeze to death,” says Polone. “We have plenty of room, plenty of food, plenty of love within this community, and people that just want to help.”