By GARY STEWART
The Kings Mountain Herald
ew Texas medical facility
onors John O. Harris Jr.
August 9, 2001 Section B, Page 8
Shelby Eye Center
opens new branch
in Kings Mountain
- Editor of The Herald By BEN LEDBETTER
— Staff Writer
! Johnny Harris of Kings TT Pa
_ Mountain and other family e Shelby Eye Center's
»amembers and business associ-
ates recently dedicated Harris
- Professional Pavilion in
Pasadena, TX in honor of
Harris’ late fathet, John O.
“Harris Jr.
The 25,000-square foot facili-
ty, located on a 2,000 acre tract
-that Harris’ company, John O.
Harris Interests, purchased in
the 1970s, houses internal
“medicine, dental and allergy
clinics. Harris said his company
"is also dealing with two major
_ pharmacies.
The total development,
“known as Fairmont Central, in-
~ cludes other businesses such as
banks, a 300-unit apartment
complex, restaurants, shopping
“centers, office buildings, the
|. Chamber of Commerce, Wal-
. Mart, Family Dollar, other med-
“ical facilities and churches, as
well as an upscale residential
development.
Harris, President of family-
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The Harris Professional Pavilion in Pasadena, TX was recently dedicated to the memory of
Kings Mountain native John 0. Harris Jr. Harris began deyeloping the facility prior to his death
newest branch opened last
week in Kings Mountain.
The Kings Mountain Eye
Center will be open on East
King St. in the office building
. next to the U.S. Highway 74
Bypass.
Nancy Cline, who will be
working in the Kings Mountain
office, said expansion into
Kings Mountain has been
planned for approximately nine
months. Currently, the Shelby
Eye Center has an office in
Forest City, and sees patients in
a physicians office in Gaffney,
S.C.
Scheduling patients for the
Kings Mountain Eye Center
started in July.
All physicians at the Shelby
Eye Center rotate and go to the
different offices. Cline said the
different office locations make it
easier for patients who tend to
live in different parts of the
area.
NANCY CLINE
portation issues and this helps
them out.” :
Maintaining different offices
in different areas is a way to
reach more patients, Cline said.
Also in the E. King St. medi-
bwied Haris Funct Homo in on cancer in 1996, and his company, John 0. Harris Interests, completed the project in his : “The main thing is that it’s cal building is the Kings
Kings Mountain as well as John ory: just Thote convenient for pa- Mountain Women’s Center and
O. Harris Interests in Pasadena, then ventured into commercial family members and friends John O. Harris Jr.’s memory Horta! Cline said Mike this a Cleveland County Health
said the new facility was named
in memory of his father as a
way of “continuing the vision”
: he had for the medical facility.
* John O. Harris Jr., known local-
: ly as “Ollie Jr.,” died in 1996 af-
ter a long bout with cancer.
“I remember when he first
: bought that property, it was just
open fields,” Johnny Harris
said. “We used to hunt that
land.”
: He recalled that once roads
* were built into Fairmont
¢ Parkway, which connects major
i highways I-45 and State
- Highway 146, his father began
¢ an upscale neighborhood and
development.
He placed restrictions on all
leases and purchases, and many
of his architectural and land-
scaping plans were later devel-
oped as ordinances by the town
of 130,000 people.
“He never sold property not
knowing what would go in
there,” Johnny Harris said. “He
had to approve the design and
final drawings, and all of the
concrete parking and landscap-
ing plans had to be approved as
well.”
Johnny Harris Was keyridte |
speaker for the pavilion dedica-
tion. Also in attendance were
from Kings Mountain, includ-
ing Ronnie Hawkins, Bobby
and Sharon Horne, and Shirley,
Mal and Keri Brutko. Over 350
people attended the ceremony,
including former mayors and
other dignitaries.
Harris said people in
Pasadena and Houston often re-
ferred to his father as “Mr.
Fairmont Parkway” because of
his efforts in bringing upscale
commercial and residential de-
velopment to the area.
{HL Af
"Alive orchestra provided en-
tertainment. A huge plaque in
was placed on the front of the
building.
“Dad passed away in
September 1996,” Johnny Harris
noted, “and it has been my goal
to continue the development
that he started. It would have
been a fulfillment of his dreams.
“The dedication brought a lot
of people together, and for me it
was a pinnacle of what dad had
been able to achieve for the last
30 plus years there,” Harris
said. “That development was
his life, his struggle, and he
died doing it. Hopefully we can
complete it with the same dig-
nity that he started it with.”
gentleman here has always
been going to our Shelby office,
but he lives in Bessemer City.”
But that changed when the
new office opened.
“I knew I needed to see him
today,” Cline said. “I said, “You
know, our new office is opening
in Kings Mountain, would that
be more convenient?,””
Along with her Bessemer
City patient, Cline said travel-
ing to different locations helps
ease burdens on some of her
other patients also.
“That’s why we do it is really
for the patients, so they don’t:
have to travel as far,” Cline
said. “A lot of them have trans-
gFOOD INSPECTIONS
Department office.
Both office’s main headquar-
ters are in Shelby.
Cline has been with the
Shelby Eye Center for three
years, and moved to Cleveland
County from Augusta, Ga.
where she did her residency at
the Medical College of Georgia.
Cline will be in Kings
Mountain approximately three
days a week, and will open the
office five days a week depend-
ing on patient demand.
The Kings Mountain Eye
Center will offer laser surgery
and other minor surgical proce-
dures not requiring an operat-
ing room.
| Cleveland County Health Jack in the Box, Earl Rd., ;
A Department inspected the fol- 92.5%
| lowing food facilities during the Minit Grill, Kings Mountain, i
week of July 27-August 1. * 91.5.
| ** Indicates that employee(s) Nakata’s Japanese |
attended an approved handling
course.
Steakhouse, E. Dixon Blvd.,
86.5.
PPG (forming) 91.5%
Restaurants PPG (roving) 93.5**
: Bojangles, W. Dixon Blvd., Ryan's, E. Dixon Blvd., (re-in-
84.5.4 spection), 93.0** i
Copeland, E. Dixon Blvd., Subway, Dixon School Road, i
94.0.%* Kings Mountain, 95.0.
Cotton’s Seafood, N. Post Swooger Shack, Shelby Road,
L Rd., 94.5. Kings Mountain, 97.0.
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