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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 29, 2005 City public works chief deployed to Iraq By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland Public Works Department Director Paula Brown will be leaving her job and family to head to Iraq to help rebuild the country's infrastructure. A captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, Brown departs on Monday for California and will then go to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for six months of additional training before going to Iraq, she said. Once in Iraq, Brown will put her engineering and management skills to work as she oversees the Seabees, members of the Navy who specialize in construction. Brown said she has to put aside thoughts about the dangers in Iraq and concentrate on her mission. "I've got 23 years in the military. My focus has to be on the job," she said. "Our job is to help the Iraqi people get their country up and running. Their frustration is probably greater than ours." Married to Patrick Flannery of the Ashland Community Hospital Foundation and stepmother to a 21-year-old and a 25-year-old, Brown said she is more fortunate than many of the 6,000 people she leads. "I'm very lucky. There are people in my regiment with itty-bitty kids. How do you leave your kids? I'm very lucky. My husband is very supportive and knows why I'm going," she said. Brown heard that she was facing the 14-month active duty deployment at Thanksgiving and has been preparing by going to the dentist, packing her uniforms and taking care of other matters. Consultants from Medford-based Public Works Management Inc. will handle her city duties while she is gone. Her experience managing the city's water system and directing major infrastructure improvements, including the recent Siskiyou Boulevard and Ashland Street overhauls and sewage treatment plant upgrades, likely will prove valuable in a country where many citizens lack reliable water, sewage and electric facilities and where insurgents bomb buildings and roads. Although Brown is facing her deployment with stoicism, fellow city staff members are worried. "She's going to be dearly missed," said Finance Director Lee Tuneberg. "We're concerned about her going away from us. She does have a job to do and we respect that. As a Seabee, she will eventually be on the ground in hot spots. That concerns us, but it's part of Paula's life and one of the things she holds dear and we support her. We'll do whatever it takes to help the city while she's gone and we'll be there for her when she gets back." Tuneberg said Brown will be missed both as a colleague and as a friend. "I'm going to miss her, no doubt about it. She is one of my closest friends. We work together very closely and have become friends," he said. "What can you say about someone who you like so much who has to leave their family and go into harm's way?" DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams