Dave Fowler has served on the city’s plan commission for a long time, but soon he’ll be serving in a different capacity and in a different state.
FRANKLIN - Dave Fowler has served on the city’s plan commission for a long time, but soon he’ll be serving in a different capacity and in a different state.
Fowler will be deployed to Florida to assist those affected by Hurricane Maria. He said the deployment is planned for six months, but the actual term length is uncertain.
Since he will be gone for so long, Fowler said he is willing to resign if the plan commission has issues getting a quorum for meetings. For now, the city is going to wait and see how things play out.
“We do want development to move forward so we’re playing it by ear,” Fowler said.
Fowler said he has experience helping out with disaster situations in the past working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). His past deployments were for disaster response, but this deployment is different because it’s for disaster recovery, he said.
Fowler said the number of disasters as of late — the Florida/Puerto Rico hurricane devastation, flooding in Houston, and the fires in California — have led to a shortage of volunteers. He said there are only about 200 volunteers currently and another 300 are needed.
Another point that led him to realize the need is high is that he’s running into old friends who were in the reserve and retired from, but now they’re back.
Currently, he’s doing some training but soon he will get deployed to a joint field office in Florida for about three to five days and he’ll then be assigned to a different place that best matches his skill set.
Nationwide Infrastructure Support Technical Assistance Consultants (NISTAC) provides support to FEMA when needed, Fowler said. He volunteered and is getting deployed through his employer, Stantec, and NISTAC.
Fowler said he’ll be missing his birthday, Thanksgiving, and deer hunting.