Fire academy’s financial woes growing worse

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2003 | 9:27 a.m.

The struggling Fire Science Academy in the Northern Nevada town of Carlin is nearly in a state of code red, racking up a $38 million deficit in construction and operating costs as of this year, according to a report released Wednesday.

"We're nearly $7 million in the red here (in operating costs) and we're currently losing about $200,000 a month," Regent Tom Kirkpatrick said.

Construction overages, delays and customers heading to other institutions such as Texas A&M for fire emergency training have contributed to the school's sagging financial picture -- one that University of Nevada, Reno officials running the facility say is not expected to improve any time soon.

"Right now the plan would be to use any excess funds from student fees to start chipping away at the debt," said Denise Baclawski, director of the fire science academy.

If school officials do not sell it, the fire academy could begin paying off its debt by 2008, if enrollment at the school meets its projection, officials said.

The trouble began after the academy closed in summer 2000 due to construction defects. Inspectors found that fuel used to accelerate controlled burns during fire training exercises had leaked from pipes into nearby soil.

Fixing the design flaws proved expensive and recovering from the loss of revenue due to the closures caused the deficit to climb.

UNR President John Lilley has tried to pay for some of the construction costs through student fees and said he would rather ride tough times out rather than sell the academy.

"We could see some light at the end of the tunnel but it is a very long tunnel," Lilley said.