By Katie Humphrey
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Copyright 2007 The Austin American-Statesman
All Rights Reserved
AUSTIN — Before they can even think about extinguishing a blazing building, these future firefighters have to pack the truck and the trailer and the school bus.
Cadets in Austin Community College’s increasingly popular firefighter training academy must travel to do just about any hands-on work, including practicing rope rescues and performing drills on putting out real fires.
Their current classroom, in a former dress shop in downtown Taylor, doesn’t have the training facilities the academy needs.
“It cuts time out of our classes, because we have to commute,” cadet Jesse Bolles, 19, said.
College officials hope to put an end to that by moving the academy to the Austin Fire Department’s training center on Shaw Lane by the fall.
The college already uses the city facility to conduct live burn training each semester.
The plan, which calls for transferring three portable buildings from the college’s Cypress Creek campus in Cedar Park and building a parking lot at the city-owned facility just outside the Southeast Austin limits, was approved by ACC trustees Feb. 5.
But the move won’t be final until the Austin City Council approves it.
Taylor, which is served by Temple Community College, is outside the ACC taxing district and its service area.
Moving the academy nearer Austin would bring it inside ACC’s service area, bring students closer to services at the Riverside campus and allow the fire academy to add an evening training program, said Mike Midgley, ACC’s vice president for work force education and business development.
“By moving the academy into a more central location, it’s just physically more accessible to a larger part of the population,” Midgley said.
The move and construction of a 30-vehicle lot would cost ACC about $508,000. The money would come from interest funds from the college’s 2003 bond.
Austin Fire Department Assistant Chief Flo Soliz said the department has been meeting with city officials to review the plan but didn’t know when it might go before the council.
Combining ACC with the department’s training facility could provide educational opportunities, he said, declining to elaborate because the plan was preliminary.
“There’s always mutual benefit to any type of partnership,” Soliz said.
According to the lease and facility-use agreement approved by ACC trustees, the Fire Department and the college could work together to form a regional training facility, offering basic training and continuing education for firefighters in Central Texas.
The Austin Fire Department, which trains its own cadets, will continue to do so if ACC moves its training program.
Founded in 1990 as a joint venture between ACC and Taylor, the academy has the capacity to train up to 30 cadets per semester. Students attend classes 40 hours a week for 16 weeks and then take an exam for certification through the Texas Commission on Fire Protection.
The number of applicants far exceeds the number of spaces, said Gary Hampton, ACC’s dean of public services. “We’ve got a waiting list of people who want to get in there.”
Because most cadets are from Austin, the college also rents rooms in a small dormitory attached to the Taylor classroom facility to cut down on long commutes. There would not be a dormitory for students if the academy relocates to Austin.
Cadets said future students would miss out on the camaraderie of living in a dorm and the kindness of Taylor’s residents, who often stop to wave and chat with the students.
But, they said, the move makes sense because it would move the academy to better facilities and increase visibility.
People outside Taylor barely know the academy exists, cadets said.
Cadet Jason Williams, 24, said future students “will have good training. And (the academy) will probably get more recognition in Austin.”