Our homepage states City Limits Storage Center is “family owned and operated,” but it goes deeper than just that statement. In 1997, construction started on the first building, with a construction crew consisting of 90% of people with the last name “Hardy.” Floyd, Wayne, Brian, Ron and LeAnn Hardy worked on pouring concrete, putting up posts, hanging sheet metal, rafters and doors. Even excavation was largely done by Leonard Hardy. As the years went on, and more buildings went up, the Hardy crews continued assembling to get it done.
Some of the Hardy’s responsible for the construction in 1997.
Years later, when getting Hardy’s for construction became more difficult and City Limits Storage Center had to start considering hiring work, we kept it “in the family,” going with MaRaj Construction, owned by Mark Rajdl. Mark has been hunting, boating, playing cards and generally being there with and for my family for around two decades. When it comes to non-genetic family, no one comes closer than Mark.
When the first building went up in 1997, I was five years old. I don’t remember a lot of finer details from that time, but I remember stopping at a local bakery with my mom to pick up doughnuts for the Hardys at the build site. When later buildings went up, my sister and I wanted to be more useful, so my dad gave us our first job: picking up bent nails that fell out of tool-belts for a nickel a nail. Of course, at some point one of us tried to get away with grabbing a fistful of brand new nails from the box and handing those in as “dropped” nails. We didn’t fool anyone, but it was worth a shot.
Fast forward 22 years and the business is still run by the Hardy Family. When it snows, Ron and LeAnn are out there shoveling and plowing (though they are always looking for shoveling help now that my sister and I live out of state). In the summer, they are out there mowing. When someone needs to rent a unit, Ron or LeAnn will meet them there to sign the paperwork and show them around. Even my skill set has updated to let me continue contributing by working on the website.
I won’t say City Limits Storage Center has always drawn us closer together as a family in the moment, but I do believe we are closer now than we would be without it. A lot of life lessons were learned in the process of building this family business.