“We got really serious about building new after that,” Dr. MJ said.
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Said Dr. Mary: “My parents have a chalkboard in their kitchen, and my dad started doodling. We showed the drawings to Steve and he said, ‘All right, you two, let me help you here.’ And he took those plans from there and made them presentable.”
The plan started to develop – with Dr. MJ occasionally pausing along the way to clarify that his daughter was committed to going into practice with him. The answer was always yes, and over the next few months they worked closely with Steve to develop a plan to build a new facility in O’Neill.
“Dr. MJ was in a 70-year-old building,” Equipment Specialist Kampschnieder said, “with no windows, no parking and no opportunity for growth. My only goal was to show him what’s out there to help and the process he could use to get there.”
Dr. MJ had purchased some land on the edge of town and was planning to move his practice there. Something didn’t feel right about it, though, after the Mercer seminar. Downtown O’Neill was really Main Street, USA, and leaving it behind was disconcerting.
“He turned to me that day and he said, ‘Mary, I’m a downtown dentist and that’s where I want to be.’ I said, ‘Well, then we have to start looking somewhere else.’” Look, they did. Dr. MJ chose a pair of plots just out the back door of his old office for the location of his new office. “It’s made a big improvement for the whole block,” he said. “I could’ve done this cheaper, I think, at a different location, but it’s just good for O’Neill to have the downtown look better and that motivates me, too.”