(lighthearted music) - Hello.

Welcome to another edition of 1036 here in Milwaukee PBS, I'm Portia Young.

In this next half hour, we have a story that will bring back memories of the old circus parade.

Thanks to a father and son team, who are rolling along the old fashioned way.

And Milwaukee continues to battle lead found in old pipes, paint, and soil.

Hear what city and health officials have to say about next steps and how you can keep safe from lead poisoning.

We begin with the look at the crazy housing market and the soaring costs of new home construction.

Milwaukee PBS's Mariano Avila looks into the main culprits.

- According to the U.S. postal service, nearly 16 million people have moved during the pandemic.

But talk to anyone who has moved recently and you'll hear the story of America's housing crunch, both for renters and home buyers.

Driving that is the simple economic law of too much demand and not enough supply.

To find out why there's a supply shortage we talked to Robert Dietz, Chief Economist for the National Association of Home Builders.

- The number one issue right now as we begin 2021, is without a doubt lumber and building materials.

Lumber pricing is up as lumber is effectively tripled.

It's adding about $35,000.

And so the price of a typical newly built, single-family home.

And then when ask builders about the sources of their other building materials supplies just about everything is getting more expensive, or is in short supply.

- Which brings us here, to Bliffert Lumber and Hardware.

One of the main suppliers of framing lumber in Eastern Wisconsin.

- I'm Eli Bliffert.

I'm Vice President of Bliffert Lumber and Hardware here in Milwaukee.

We are at our 1014 Chamber Street location, which is the oldest lumberyard in the city of Milwaukee.

My family has been here since the late 1800s.

- [Narrator] For 117 years, the Bliffert's have kept their doors open surviving the great depression, World War II, the great recession, and a pandemic.

But they've never seen price hikes in lumber quite like these.

- This price run is unlike any other price run because it's been going on longer.

It's over, it's 16 months more than 16 months.

This price run is run up in lumber and (indistinct) has been going on.

The other difference in it is that in previous price runs, and we've all been through price runs in our industry, in all those other run-ups you could still get material.

You didn't like what you were paying for it 'cause it was bloody expensive, but you could still get it.

The difference now is you simply can't get it.

It doesn't matter what you want to pay for it you can't get it.

- [Narrator] Over the past 14 months, the price of a 2x4 for instance, went from around $3.50 to over $11 a piece.

But what's driving the price?

Hint, we're not running out of trees.

- There's a lot of factors and the main one is demand.

There's a huge amount of pent up demand for single family housing in this country.

It's not just the state of Wisconsin it's the whole country.

There really was a slow down in building after the recession.

And it really, it has come back stronger than it's been in a long time.

However, a lot of the industry went away during the recession.

So, there is not enough tradespeople in any trade to keep up with demand right now.

So when demand is really high prices go up.

- [Narrator] Bliffert does not expect lumber prices to stay high forever, but says labor prices will keep rising in the immediate future.

And lumber is not likely to go back to where it was before the pandemic.

- Older homes have serious issues as well.

Milwaukee has been battling a critical lead issue for years due to old infrastructure and housing stock.

Lead abatement work continues around the city at homes with lead based paint.

For safety reasons, families are asked to stay out of the homes until the work is finished.

That's been the topic for Listen MKE, a community listening project of the ideas lab at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WUWM Milwaukee's NPR, the Milwaukee Public Library, and Milwaukee PBS.

Here's some of that recent conversation with the city and health leaders starting with WUWM's environmental reporter, Susan Bentz, asking mayor Tom Barrett the first question.

- What will it take from your perspective and from your departments, you know, participation in this issue to address the lead crisis in a quick and efficient fashion?

What will it take?

- Well, I think it'll take a partnership with the federal government.

And fortunately with President Biden and with the support of Senator Baldwin, with the support of Congresswoman Moore, and other Democrats in our delegation, we have I think at this time a once in a generational opportunity to address these issues.

And I'm glad that we're talking about this in terms of lead because there really are two distinct issues here.

There is the issue of our older housing stock where we have a lot of lead based paint that we believe from a health perspective has had the most illustrious impact on young people in particular.

In other words, when you see elevated lead levels in children, by and large, that is attributable to lead paint.

Not 100%, but the overwhelming majority we believe of those lead cases are as a result of lead paint.

And so we've always had a focus on making sure that we get resources for lead paint remediation, which is an expensive process.

And over the last few years we've done it in a more extensive basis.

For many, many years we were focusing on the windows and window sills.

Now, working with Todd, we are taking a more expand approach in doing more led remediation of other parts of homes and apartments as well.

So, the lead paint issue is very, very real.

Probably though, the issue that's received more media attention and more public attention is the issue of our aging infrastructure.

Which means our lead based the lead it is contained in our laterals.

And I'm being careful with my words here.

And Carrie can correct me if I'm wrong in anythings that I say here, but our water means do not contain lead in them.

Our water mains, which are basically the larger pipes that run through the city.

Even though they're old.

And we just last week were out with the secretary of labor in replacing some of those.

They do not contain lead.

They are very, very old in some instances, well over a 100 years old.

But they do not contain lead.

The smaller pipes that run from the lead from, I'm sorry, that run from the water means to homes and businesses do contain lead in the infrastructure, not in the water, but in the infrastructure themselves.

They're lead based; there's lead in those laterals.

That becomes an issue when those laterals are disrupted.

When they are jostled, when they're hit, when the construction going by.

That's when you're likely to see lead basically coming off the lead laterals themselves and getting into the water supply.

So, we don't have lead in our water.

We have lead laterals that we're very, very concerned about, but I actually couldn't consider this an aging infrastructure issue as much as a lead issue.

And that doesn't, that's not as an excuse not to do something.

I think we still have to do it because we still have in the neighborhood of 70,000 lead laterals in the city of Milwaukee.

We've replaced roughly 3 to 4,000 in the last three years, but you can see at this pace, it would take us literally decades to do so.

So, that brings us to the American Recovery Act and it brings us to the jobs bill.

And when this, when the American Recovery Act first passed my thinking was okay, let's have sort of a balanced approach here.

Let's put resources both into lead based paint and lead based paint remediation.

So that would go to working with the health department.

And then let's also work with the water department to see what we can do with the Milwaukee waterworks.

To see what we can do to put resources into speeding up that decades long problem that we will face in replacing the aging infrastructure.

Because we know again, there's lead in the laterals, not in the water, still a legitimate issue.

During the course of my conversations with Senator Ball, dealing with Congresswoman Moore's staff with others what I came to realize and believe, and this is still not borne out yet, is that the jobs bill, the infrastructure bill is likely to contain money for lead laterals, for lead lateral replacement.

In fact, the blueprint that was introduced by President Biden has basically full replacement of lead laterals.

I haven't seen that in the Republican's counter-proposal, but I believe that my conversations with Senator Baldwin and other people in Washington who are involved in this, they feel that the final bill, the infrastructure bill, will contain a significant investment in lead infrastructure replacement.

What that means is that we can use the art money, the Recovery Act money, more in the area of lead paint remediation.

- It really comes down to the funding that we receive and making sure that we're ramping up the workforce to meet the funding.

The we're also talking to the local plumbers union, to all the labor unions, to talk about how they can increase their workforce.

We're working with Milwaukee Area Technical College on some training programs.

So, it's really, you know, we're trying to be as flexible as possible to meet the demand once we have the funding in place.

- What is the city's role in holding landlords responsible for let's say, for the environment so that before children are poisoned?

And what remedies are for tenants are there for tenants and consequences for landlords who are not reaching those safety thresholds?

- So that's a great question.

I can speak from the health department's perspective.

When we do a lead inspection we will write lead abatement orders and the landlord or the property owner is responsible for doing that work.

We do have this as well to help assist in having that work done.

We have a cadre of contractors that we work directly with to get the work done as well.

But there, you know, there is a process in place.

- Does the city have a plan for widespread distribution of lead safe water filtration systems, or water pitchers as an interim measure during the what seems to be a long process of lateral replacement?

- So I'll start this off but I will pass it over to Commissioner Johnson because I think the health department has probably the most important voice in this discussion.

We have a, so Milwaukee waterworks has a filter distribution program and the health department has a filter distribution program.

And it's really modeled on the type or the reason for the filtering.

So, Milwaukee water works will provide filters when a lead service line is mandated to be replaced.

So that would be if there's a failure in the lead service line.

If there is a planned project, a water main replacement project, or a paving project where we're planning to replace all the lead service lines as well.

We provide water filters for those occupants to use you know prior to if it's a failure.

But then also during the service line replacement as well as for at least 30 days afterwards.

That timing may change a little bit based on the lead and copper rule revisions.

For childcare facilities, we mandate replacement for all the lead service lines that may be associated with a childcare facility.

So, if they've applied to locate to a property then we provide them actually bottled water service so that we could ensure that any water that they are drinking or using for cooking, or making formula for the children in that facility, that that is lead free.

And then we will do sampling after the lead service line is replaced to ensure that that lead it is meeting World Health Organization standards for bottled water, which is under five parts per billion.

So still, you know, not a health-based standard of the low are non-detectable levels, but what is feasible for water.

And then I'll pass it over to Kirsten to talk about the health department's program, because our distribution of filters is really associated with the projects that may increase lead in water at the tap.

The health departments is really associated with the populations that may be at risk based on increased lead in water at the tap.

- Correct.

Thank you, Superintendent Dettmer.

So I can speak to our water filter program is really based on identifying families who may be at higher risk.

So, women who are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, or children six and under.

So, we have through our WIC women, infant, and children's program which is a supplemental nutrition program.

We provide water filters through that work.

And then we also partner are partnering and looking to partner with our hospital systems, and other organizations to provide water filters, and water pitchers to families who would be in that population who are at higher risk as well.

- So in terms of preventative measures that families can look at with, based on where they're living whether led paint may be present and, or the lead pipe issue, or those issues that we've discussed in terms of water, can you give some, you know, basic preventative, you know what should parents be doing and thinking about when they have young children in particular?

- Absolutely.

So, the first thing that we recommend and this is really because of the pandemic we are anticipating that we're going to see a number of children who have increased, or elevated blood lead levels.

As the kids go to their doctor's appointments and their annual checkups, which may have been missed last year because of the pandemic that we'll see an increased number of kids who've been impacted, potentially don't know.

But if you're living in an older home which we know a large percentage of the housing stock in Milwaukee is older homes.

We recommend that, you know, as, when especially as we're moving into spring and summer and windows are being opened, and shut that the dust and the flakes of paint that come off of those windows that get cleaned up and wiped down regularly that you dust and vacuum, you wash kids' hands.

So, and make sure they take off their shoes.

So when they're outside playing around houses that potentially are painted with lead paint and the flakes are falling off into the soil.

So we know soil is another source of contamination.

Again, washing hands and feet, taking shoes off when you come indoors, vacuuming, wiping down potentially those the dust or the flakes that come off of windows from opening and shutting them.

Those are really some major areas where we see kids potentially being exposed, or, and if you're doing any home, any work in your home, if you're, again, if you have an older house built anytime before 1970s, it's likely that there's lead paint on the walls.

So, if you're standing or patching, you know, holes in your drywall or in your- it's highly likely that there's paint.

So, any dust that gets generated from home renovation or work in the house is another source that we like that we would likely see kids being exposed.

- What is kind of the plan to investigate and address long-term human costs of lead poisoning?

- That's a really good question.

So we are internally really talking about the research that we're seeing come out around the long-term effects of lead in children and as they become adults this has been a multi-generational problem in Milwaukee.

We recognize, so elevated blood lead levels at a population level, have an impact on a child's IQ and development.

Which from my perspective is very concerning.

We absolutely want to make sure that we prevent that from happening at all, but also how do we address children and families who've already been adversely affected?

So again, with these funds potentially coming into the city and the opportunity to have a really robust and comprehensive program that's something we're absolutely looking at, at how do we address this sort of through the life course.

- Gotcha.

And I think Susan I think you have the last question.

It was around testing.

- Yes.

We've we received actually questions about this as well.

Is there the opportunity for older members of the community to be tested and is the city in the process of developing a comprehensive testing system perhaps from we know some kids at certain times are tested when they're very young but that doesn't seem to be uniform.

Is there a project in the works to create a comprehensive testing program?

- Yeah.

So, we have been talking about how do we do that?

So there has not been a comprehensive testing strategy.

Our medical director, Dr. Heather Parody, is a specialist in lead in children's, specifically she's a pediatrician.

But we have had conversations about how do we incorporate testing in lead for women who are thinking about being pregnant or prenatally.

So we know that there are certain times in people's lives when if they were exposed to lead as children that it starts to leech out off their bodies during gestation is one of them.

So that's our high priority for us to identify or have some, a testing strategy around that.

Best practice in the United States, and I believe it's Ohio, I'm sorry or maybe New York, but I don't want to speak out of turn, but there is a program that has more comprehensive like even a lead, like a lead testing program or lead comprehensive lead organization that I think is housed either in a medical facility or a health department.

But their entire job is a medical facility focused on lead again through the life course.

So testing from testing, to treatment, to abatement, and really sort of simple solutions that you can employ in your own home, you know, rugs again, making sure that there's no paint chipping et cetera.

But yes, it's absolutely something part of our more comprehensive plan.

It's not, it hasn't been done historically but it's a need that we have identified.

- We have several Milwaukee lead and water resources on our webpage, milwaukeepbs.org/resources.

June is dairy month in Wisconsin.

And the changing dairy industry and the tremendous loss of small family dairy farms is the subject of an upcoming Milwaukee PBS documentary produced in partnership with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Reporter, Rick Barrett, recently spoke with U.S.

Senator Tammy Baldwin in our studios about the importance of maintaining small family, dairy farms.

Baldwin is the chair of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, rural development, and food and drug administration - Senator for folks in the city, some might say, "Well, you know, it's a really sad story, but it's kind of inevitable.

We've seen it with other small businesses.

Everything's gotten bigger.

Everything's gotten more corporate."

- Yeah.

Well, I think we'll question this direction.

We happened to be speaking at a moment when the largest meat processor in the world I believe, had to shut down North American operations because of cyber ransomware.

Getting bigger doesn't necessarily make us safer.

Getting bigger and more monopolistic does not necessarily like, I shouldn't understate this.

That can be dangerous too.

And so I think it's absolutely critical especially if there's a disruption among one of the behemoths that we have a vibrant, diverse industry that can keep on going at moments like that.

You know, we certainly saw any number of instances during the pandemic also.

Where there were challenges.

Where we have thing, you know, entities that were growing so big and so powerful that when something went wrong we didn't have any alternatives.

We have to keep these small family farms.

Multi-generational farms.

- So, you feel like this is a food security issue then or even a national security issue?

- Oh, sure.

All of the above.

- Look for our documentary this coming October here on Milwaukee PBS.

Finally, it's summer and many of us are heading outside perhaps on our bikes for some sunshine and exercise.

Milwaukee PBS producers, Traci Neuman and Brian Ewig, introduce us to one local father and son whose bike of choice you might say is just a bit old fashioned.

- Are you on?

- Not really.

- We'll adjust.

- Okay.

Okay.

I think I'm good.

- I'm letting go.

(harp and guitar playing) - When you're riding on the high wheel bike it's functional arc, you're part of the scenery as a scenery becomes part of you.

My first circus parade was '97.

I did all of them from '97 to the end.

- Got it?

- Randy saw me doing it and I told Landy, "well maybe he should get a high wheel."

And he said, "okay."

And we went out and he tried it, and he liked it.

- We've gone all over the country because of the bikes and met a lot of people because of the bikes.

Actually, I was like what 12, 13 at the time?

And I said that I just wanted to do something with him.

Plus I just thought it was really fascinating.

(crowd talking) - Look at the bicycles.

The wheel men preserving the history of the early days of bicycles, isn't that amazing?

- This is called an ordinary or a penny-farthing.

The reason why they were called ordinaries were because they were so common that they were just ordinary to see.

And the term penny-farthing is actually an English term referring to the penny and the farthing.

The penny being the large wheel and the farthing 1/4th of a penny.

So, referring to the little wheel.

The little wheel rotates about four times to every one rotation of the big wheel, thus penny-farthing.

They started making them because basically this was the first thing from horse and buggy and walking.

And they really didn't have a concept of chains or gears, and the chains and gears that they did have were way too big and bulky.

By 1889, 1886, 1887, they already had a concept of these chains.

Got it down a lot thinner.

And you could get bicycle like you see today.

A lot of sayings actually come from these bicycles.

For instance, with this one, it's a common practice when going downhill to put your feet over the handlebars for coasting.

And when you would do that, people would, you'd go fast and people would be like, "Hey look at that guy flying by the seat of his pants."

And that's literally where that saying came from.

Also, the kerosene lanterns were really more used for people to see you not for you to see.

So they had this idea of putting the kerosene lanterns in the hub right in the center there and would hang right from there.

And what would happen is they would spill, somebody would crash, kerosene would spill out, and it would ignite.

And you would literally crash and burn.

(harp and guitar playing) Where am I stopping you?

- With Andy around being as big as he is, I feel comfortable that he can help me because I used to help him when he was learning how to ride his bike.

He used to help him get on, get off, get on, get off until he could finally do it on it's own.

And now payback.

(laughs) (harp and guitar playing) - So get on your bike of choice and enjoy summer, but stay safe.

Remember to check us out on Facebook and milwaukeepbs.org.

In honor of June dairy month, we leave you with the look from above dairy farm life in Central Wisconsin, where planting season recently wrapped up.

(lighthearted music)