May 14, 2025
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Cyr’s journey taking her from Bourbonnais to Tennessee

Administrative assistant since 2008

By Jeff Bonty
Bourbonnais Mayor Paul Schore is honored with a sign presented by Assistant Administrator Laurie Cyr, right, designating the street Schore lives on, Blanchette, as Honorary Paul Schore Avenue at the village board meeting on Monday, April 21, 2025.

Bourbonnais Mayor Paul Schore is honored with a sign presented by Assistant Administrator Laurie Cyr, right, designating the street Schore lives on, Blanchette, as Honorary Paul Schore Avenue at the village board meeting on Monday, April 21, 2025. (Jeff Bonty)

BOURBONNAIS – Bourbonnais assistant administrator Laurie Cyr has been a go-getter since joining the village in 2008.

She has been involved in many of the village’s most significant projects.

Those have included the creation of Riverfront and Cavalier de LaSalle parks to Bourbonnais’ Interstate 57 interchange to the log schoolhouse and finally the village’s The Grove at Robert Goselin Memorial Park.

After June 6, she will take that go-getter attitude to Loudon, Tennessee, where she will become the city planner.

“They talk in sports about impact players, well, Laurie was our impact player,” former mayor Paul Schore said. “She will be sorely missed.”

The move to Tennessee is a homecoming for the 51-year-old Cyr. Her mother, Sue Amiot, has lived in the state for 19 years.

Cyr has spent much of her free time visiting her mother. Cyr graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1992.

“We are like peas and carrots,” Cyr explained with a line from the movie “Forrest Gump.”

The move has been months in the making from the time she spotted the city planner opening on Indeed to announcing to her friends Monday on social media she was starting a new chapter in her journey.

Cyr shared the story that her daughter, Carmen, told her she was OK with the move.

“She said Grandma would be more fun,” Cyr said.

Plus, Carmen lives in the Chicago area and can catch a 2-hour flight to visit.

Loudon is 32 miles south and west of Knoxville and has a population of approximately 6,600 residents.

Cyr has also served for many years as the Bourbonnais representative and board president to the Visit Kankakee County board of directors.

“I saw the ad. It was close to where my mom lives,” Cyr said. “It is something you cannot pass up. It didn’t matter about the outcome of the election.”

Schore was defeated in the February primary by fellow Bourbonnais Citizens Party member Jeff Keast, who then won the April general election over David Zinanni.

Bourbonnais administrator Mike Van Mill has worked with Cyr for approximately 9 1/2 years. He said it has been a good partnership guiding the village and its growth.

“Laurie is a doer and a finisher. She gets things done,” Van Mill said.

Former Bourbonnais administrator Frank Koehler knows all too well Cyr has left her mark on the village. He is currently on the village’s planning and zoning board.

“He told me my DNA is on a lot of what Bourbonnais has become,” Cyr said. “Now I get a chance to do the same thing in another community as my journey continues.”