The primary election Aug. 14 was not just a hectic experience for the local candidates and those with the Supervisor of Elections office. For Mike McCreary and staff at Baymeadows Moving and Storage, the weeks leading to the day and election night some might consider stressful, too.
For the last several elections, the company has assisted the Supervisor of Elections in moving voting equipment to and from precincts and securely transporting ballots to the office’s Gateway Town Center warehouse.
The process starts 10 weeks out, with equipment moved to each precinct — close to 200 — the Tuesday before a primary, said Helena Damato, who works in Baymeadows’ operations. On election night, 25 trucks and 50 movers transport ballots with security detail from 25 different drops zones throughout the city back to Gateway. In the two days following the election, voting equipment is picked up and brought back.
“We’ve got it down now where there is no panic anymore,” McCreary said. “We were a little like a deer in the headlights at first, but we worked with movers, friends and it’s smooth now.”
Most jobs have been smooth since McCreary started the company in November 1996 after a career in the trucking industry.
He actually began his moving career by accident.
McCreary said he was tired of being away all the time and went to apply for a new trucking job he saw in a newspaper, only that he went into the wrong building.
“They hired me,” he said, then laughed.
Baymeadows has about a dozen office staff and additional labor force of 30, give or take several contractors, and does residential, commercial and industrial moving and storage jobs both in the U.S. and internationally.
“We’re very diversified, there’s nothing we can’t do,” he said. “We can move anybody anywhere in the world.”
Residential moves tend to be a focus during summer months, which then wind down into commercial work.
In the 16 years of business, he can only remember one- to two days that work has stopped due to adverse weather during hurricane season.
Though they successfully acquire some City contracts, such as for elections, they earn more business through word of mouth, referrals and advertising — especially through the trucks bearing the company’s name and red, white and blue design.
And he’s always looking for the next prize.
“Give us a challenge,” he said.
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