Clinton Township’s emergency management coordinator retires

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — After half a century working for Clinton Township, Paul Brouwer is ready to retire.

Brouwer has been the township’s emergency management coordinator for the past 33 years. His last day will be Dec. 20, excluding a few lingering reports he’ll finish up on his way out. The longer transition period will allow newly elected Clinton Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem a chance to find a replacement, according to Bob Cannon, the township’s outgoing supervisor.

“I never thought I was going to be here this long,” Brouwer said. “It’s been a great, great run.”

Brouwer got his start with the township as a probationary firefighter in 1974. He worked his way up to deputy chief, a post he retired from in 2004. In 1991, he was appointed as the township’s first emergency management coordinator, which is a part-time gig.

“When I started in 1991, I didn’t know what an emergency manager was,” Brouwer said. “I was interested in the disaster planning part of it.”

When this happened, he was relieved of his duties at the Fire Department for 10 months while he put together the township’s first emergency management plan.

“I did that and then went back to the Fire Department,” Bouwer said. “They asked me to stay on on my days off at the Fire Department to maintain it and keep it up to date.”

Brouwer has lived in the area his entire life. He was born in Utica near where Jimmy John’s Field currently sits. When he was 3 years old, he moved into a house his father and grandfather built near the intersection of Harrington Road and Gratiot Avenue. He graduated from Mount Clemens High School in 1967.

When he and his wife Diane got married in 1969, they moved to a house near the intersection of 15 Mile Road and Groesbeck Avenue. The family moved to their current home near the intersection of Canal Road and Clinton River Road in 1994.

He was initially interested in the medical field. This took him to a job at a private ambulance company where he also volunteered as a Harrison Township firefighter. Working an ambulance meant long hours and low pay so, when he married Diane, Brouwer tried working in construction and had a stint as a claims adjuster for AAA. After a while, he decided he didn’t want to sit behind a desk and searched for something else.

“I applied to the Fire Department. Fortunately, they had some openings,” Brouwer said. “I got in and, as they say, the rest is history.”

Brouwer said the department will often look at potential threats and then examine what the township is able to respond to. Training for the Department of Public Services, the Fire Department and Police Department works to make the township ready for the unexpected. This preparedness came in handy when the Goo Smoke Shop explosion occurred in March.

“That was a classic case of a multiagency response, and it went quite well considering the magnitude of the incident,” Brouwer said.

Brouwer acts as the liaison to the Federal Emergency Management Agency when there is a presidential declaration of an emergency. He estimates there have been five during his three decades with the township. The most recent of these came in 2014 when there was massive flooding in portions of the township.

Brouwer praised the outgoing supervisor’s management style. Cannon’s last day, after serving on the board for 40 years, was Nov. 20.

“He was really a hands-off guy,” Brouwer said.

“Paul Brouwer has been a staple in the community for many, many years in many different occupations,” Cannon said at the Nov. 12 meeting of the Clinton Township Board of Trustees.

Cannon said Brouwer leaving would be a “big loss” for the township, saying events like the Goo Smoke Shop explosion have shown why the position is essential.

“It’s a part-time position, but it’s not part-time to Paul,” Cannon said. “Paul works all the time.”

“You have left big shoes to fill,” Clinton Township Clerk Kim Meltzer said at the meeting.

Township Attorney Jack Dolan said Brouwer played a key role in shaping the position.

“He is, in some respects, Mr. Emergency Manager in the state of Michigan,” Dolan added at the meeting.

Paul and Diane have two children and nine grandchildren. He has a son, Paul, and a granddaughter, Ashley, who also became firefighters.

In retirement, Brouwer wants to focus on hobbies like woodworking, coin collecting and hunting.

“I got stuff to keep me busy,” he said.

While he’ll turn off the emergency scanner on his last day, he won’t stop listening.

“I’m going to buy another one so I can still listen,” Brouwer said.