In 2002, after former employer Interstate Sweeping closed their doors, Beth Krueger used her 20+ years of experience in the street sweeping industry and began putting together a list of clients broad enough to cover loan payments on her own street sweeper. Today, her company, Allstate Sweeping, is one of Colorado’s more well-known minority contractors, having been certified as a woman-owned business. Allstate Sweeping’s clients include RTD, one of Colorado’s public mass transit organizations, as well as the state’s Department of Transportation. Allstate Sweeping prides itself on its quality of work and its ability to pay their employees prevailing wage on more than 90% of their routes.
For the first time ever, our Featured Contractor for this month is not one company, but two. Lexington Pavement Sweep was founded in the late 1980s by Jim Blackerby, Jr., to serve the Greater Lexington, Kentucky, market area.
By contrast, Louisville Pavement Sweep was founded by his son, Jim Blackerby III, only about a year-and-a-half ago. This is, in large part, the story about how a sweeping contractor of high ideals has inspired his son to follow in his footsteps.
John Bailey began his street sweeping career in 1988, leaving the shoe-selling business for a client that paid him $200/month, which was just enough money to cover the loan payment on his single “Trailer Vac” mounted on his pickup truck. That Trailer Vac still runs today, after a few refurbishments, and Bailey now boasts a fleet of a dozen sweepers as well as his own LLC, Bailey’s Sweeper Service, operating out of Las Vegas, Nevada. Bailey credits an old window washer as his motivating factor to go from shoes to sweepers, so it is fitting that Bailey’s Sweeping Services has a window washing crew to go along with their parking lot sweeping service.
