Paul Lemieux was appointed to the Lake Bluff Village Board of Trustees on Aug. 28 to serve the remaining term of Steve Christensen, who recently resigned. He will also serve on the village finance committee.
Q. Where are you originally from?
A. My dad was in the Air Force. I’m from all over the place. I was born in California and lived in Massachusetts, Libya, Delaware and so on.
Q. You’re co-owner of iTech Automation in Mundelein. What does the company do?
A. The elevator speech is we are a provider of industrial bar codes and RFID solutions. If you have an I-Pass, it uses RFID technology.
Q. You previously served on the Lake Bluff Village Board from 2001 to 2005. How did your time on the board end?
A. I decided not to run for another term. I had kind of led the charge for getting a home rule referendum on the ballot and promoting its passage. I felt like I had invested as much time as I had and wanted to move onto other volunteer stuff.
Q. Why have you now returned to the village board?
A. (Village President) Kathy O’Hara asked me to come back. I initially declined because I’m busy, but she came back at me a second time. The opportunity to sign up for one-and-a-half years was doable.
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Q. Among other entities, you’ve volunteered with Kids Uganda NFP. What’s that?
A. They are a support for a school in Mityana, Uganda. The child-raising generation got decimated by AIDS so there are a lot of orphans there. The school orphanage takes care of 1,300 kids.
Q. What do you see as the main challenges the village currently faces?
A. There are the ongoing themes to continue from before, when I joined the board the first time. Insuring public safety, insuring the financial sustainability of the village. The more current challenges are implementing the just completed 2023 strategic plan. Other issues are creating some diversity of housing stock in the village.
Q. Any particular topics or issues you’d like to work on while on the board?
A. I’m particularly focused on the financial side. As the state goes through its budget woes, it has the possibility of impacting the village. How do we survive cuts from the state or a property tax freeze?
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