Profile: Mike Bajorek, Assistant Town Manager

Story by Matt Young, photos by Hal Goodtree.

Cary, NC – Tuesday we stopped by Town Hall to talk to Mike Bajorek, Cary’s Assistant Town Manager since July, 2009. Prior to becoming Assistant Town Manager, Bajorek was Cary Public Works Director.

Coming to Cary

Mike was raised in New Providence, NJ, moving there at a young age from Euclid, Ohio.  He attended Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, studying Civil Engineering. He met his wife BJ while at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, NC as an engineer. Mike also has a Masters degree in Business Management from Central Michigan University.

“I learned a lot from the military experience, and it was a lot of fun too. The best thing about it though was that it was at Seymour Johnson where I met my wife.”

Bajorek is a retired Major in the Air Force Reserves and was deployed to Kuwait during Desert Shield.

Later, he and BJ lived in Greenville, SC where Mike worked as a civil engineer.

“Years ago, I had heard about Cary being a town that was really growing. It was growing because people wanted to live there and were relocating there. It had a great reputation – a reputation as a well-run town.  My wife and I used to drive through Cary all the time when we were in Goldsboro. I was fortunate to have been hired as Assistant Public Works Director 22 years years ago. “

His job

His job is to help set the goals of the Town organization and ensure that they are met. We asked about his manager – Ben Shivar.

“Ben is a great guy to work for. He has an excellent rapport with and the respect of Town Council. It’s our job to translate the decisions made by the Council into reality,” Mike explained.

The Man

Mike told us he used to be an an avid runner, but now has has some “aches and pains”. He recently has taken up fishing in Cary in the few spare moments he has – “nothing fancy,” he said.  “I even had to go pick up a copy of Fishing for Dummies,” he told us.

Most of his time outside of Town Hall though is spent with his family. With a big smile, Mike told us stories about his children in YMCA Indian Princesses and Cary High School ball games. Mike and BJ have four children, all of whom went to Cary High. His eldest three that have graduated are all involved in education as a career or course of study. Mike is a member of Peace Presbyterian Church where he has been a Sunday School teacher for the past 19 years.