FEATURE
HONORING BOBBY HARRIS EVERYONE WAS IN ON THE PLAN TO SURPRISE BOBBY HARRIS, A BEDROCK OF ALABASTER, WITH AN HONOR FEW HAVE: HAVING A STREET 1992-2004 playing a key role in the development of the Promenade, the development and construction of Veteran’s Park, the development of the Publix Shopping Center (off 119), major BOBBY, HOWEVER, HAD NO CLUE. expansion to the sewer plant and renovations to Buck Creek, Warrior and Municipal Parks, and he served as a Board member of the Shelby County Regional Library from 1989-2016 and a The surprise took place during a recent City Council meeting. past member of the Shelby/Jefferson Literacy Council Board of “I did not know. Everyone kept it from me since February. The Directors, and, in 2011 Mr. Harris was appointed to the Alabaster city administrator called me a week before the council meeting Water Board and he has served as Chairman since 2016.” to come to the meeting because they were going to recognize “My kids, grandchildren and great grandchildren will drive on the council that built the mall. I was excited to be there. So, that road named after me. I feel proud. I think the legacy is the fact when I walked into the council meeting and I saw my fellow that first of all, personally, you have to have principle. You have to former council member, I knew it was good. They even gave me a stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. I stood for what I dummy agenda. Everybody else had the agenda with my name on believed in. The legacy is obvious. You have the City Hall: new. The it. But the copy they gave me...my name was not on it. I took the Thompson High School: new. The Senior Center: new. Basically, dummy agenda and I took my seat,” he recalled with a smile. all of 119, all of that was part of this development. Veteran’s Park. It slowly dawned on him that maybe there was more to the There was no Veteran’s Park. All of this came from the financial meeting than what he was told. “And then when councilwoman overflow from the mall. That is my legacy,” he said proudly. Rakestraw opened the meeting with a prayer, she prayed for me. Harris wanted to thank so many people. “I want to thank the I couldn’t understand why she called my name in the prayer.” He people in Ward 1 who believed in me. They may not have always continued, “Well it really hit me, after I heard that prayer, and understood where I was leading them, but they trusted me. then Councilwoman Sophie Martin started reading the resoluI would also like to thank my family; they could have walked off tion. ‘on my god they got me, they pulled one on me’,” Harris said and left me in the pain and the misery of it all,” he said. AC with shock. The resolution called for renaming Progress Boulevard, located between Walmart and Books-A-Million which connects Colonial Promenade Parkway with Alabaster Boulevard, to Bobby Harris Boulevard. The same resolution recalled some of the history of Bobby Harris. “Bobby Harris was born and raised in Alabaster, Alabama, and has been a long time Member of the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, and, he served as Assistant Principal at Thompson High School from 1986-1996 and in 1996 was named Principal of the School of Technology at Shelby County High School in Columbiana and retired in 2000, and Mr. Harris served three terms on Alabaster City Council for Ward 1 from
NAMED AFTER HIM.
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