Leaders of the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana intend to take a business plan to Fort Wayne City Council tonight. They want more financial support from the city, but they'll explain their plan for becoming nearly or fully self-supporting in the next three to five years.

Academy Director Bernie Beier says the facility is on the road to success. A key measure: An average of 340 to 350 people use the facility at Southtown Centre, he said.

But the original grants that helped set the academy in motion are running out. He said the city has agreed to contribute up to $550,000 this year and up to $550,000 next year. The update to City Council tonight is intended to reassure members that the academy isn't counting on that degree of support forever.

Helen Murray, the CEO of Indiana Michigan Power Co., is a member of the academy board, and she said their plan for diversifying its sources of income calls for reducing the city subsidy by about $100,000 per year after 2010.

Three main elements set the course for the academy:

♦First, they want to certify the public safety academy as a provider of in-service training for law-enforcement officers.

That would enable the academy to get reimbursement from state government for much of the training it provides.

That larger role in statewide training would create a larger guaranteed base of students, which in turn might support the construction of a hotel and more restaurants near the facility.

♦Second, they want to increase the academy's use by businesses, such as a consortium of utilities that could use it for training first-responders among their employees.

♦Third, they want to increase its use by the military, such as the National Guard.

The city subsidy is more than half the budgeted revenues, both this year and in 2010.

Operating the academy costs about $1 million per year.