By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Dick Harris, the longtime owner of Alley Chevrolet in Lake City, has sold his business to Bill Pierre Enterprises, a company that already owns several car dealerships including three across the street from Alley: Bill Pierre Ford, Bill Pierre Dodge and American Lease Co.

³They made me an offer I couldnıt refuse,² said Harris, 58, who will remain with the Chevy dealership as an officer. Alley, which has been renamed Bill Pierre Chevrolet, is located at 11550 Lake City Way NE.

It would probably be tough for Harris to go cold turkey on the car business. The self-described workaholic began working with cars as a teenager, when he acquired his first automobile ‹ a used four-door Chevrolet sedan. Harris would go on to buy several more cars to fix up and resell.

As a child growing up in Puyallup, Harris explained, it was always his ambition to be a mechanic. After studying at a vocational school for three years he landed a job with Walker Chevrolet in Tacoma in 1962.

The eager young mechanic worked his way up in Walkerıs service department for 18 years, eventually taking on supervisory roles. During that time he also invested in real estate, with an eye towards financial independence.

In 1980 Tony Fisher, a friend and minority partner in Walker Chevrolet, convinced Harris to take some his real estate proceeds and go in with him nearly 50-50 in Alley Chevrolet. Fisher and Harris purchased the business in 1980.

The Alley site had been home to several Chevrolet dealerships, under various names and owners, dating back to 1955. It became Alley Chevrolet in 1970 when Bud and Bessie Alley bought the business. Harris said he and Fisher kept the Alley name for the simple reason that it was always first in the phone book.

Harris bought Fisher out in 1989 to become the dealershipıs sole owner, even though he had never sold a car in his life, having always worked on the service end of the car business. With his low-key personality and preference to stay behind the scenes, many Lake City residents had no idea that Harris owned Alley, which was probably OK with him.

Harrisıs visibility in the community rose, however, in 1994 when he teamed up with two other Lake City business folks, Russ Foisy of Rush Drake Insurance and Suzy Smith of Lake City Travel, to form the Lake City Task Force, a citizen crime watch group that also gets involved in cleaning up graffiti.

Harris, Foisy and Smith received Citizen of the Year awards in 1997 presented by then-Mayor Norm Rice in recognition of their efforts to form the Task Force.

Foisy recruited Harris to help form the Task Force after learning that he was the owner of Alley. Foisy said he didnıt know who Harris was until he called the dealership and asked to speak with the owner.

Harris readily agreed to participate in the Task Force because ‹ like Foisy and Smith ‹ he, too, had noticed Lake City area going downhill due to crime and urban decay. As a local business owner, Harris said he decided ³maybe it was my responsibility to help.²

And help Harris did, especially when it came to fund-raising. According to Foisy, Harris was also great at finding the right person for each project.

³He networked like a businessman, but he did it for the benefit of the community,² Foisy said. But Harrisıs community involvement didnıt stop there. In 1997, he agreed to serve as co-chair of the North District Neighborhoods Planning Effort, a citizen group that worked to create a neighborhood plan for the Lake City area which was formally adopted by the City Council in the late 1990s.

Harris also began personally attending Lake City Chamber of Commerce meetings, as opposed to sending an employee to represent his business as he had done in the past. In 1997, he was elected president of the Chamber and served two consecutive one-year terms.

Harris is the most proud of the fact that, under his watch as Chamber president, the Lake City Chamber moved out of its previous space, a tiny cubby hole in the Lake City Professional Building into the Martin Units complex. Its new office is big enough to host community meetings.

Harris is looking forward to slowing down now that he is no longer a business owner, but he plans to remain involved in the community.

³Itıs not so much retirement as coasting a bit,² Harris said of his plans. ³Not quite so much pressure is what it boils down to.²