Lead Free Lakewood

[Bill Call]

The issue of lead poisoning has been in the news recently. The City of Cleveland is beginning a program to test for lead poisoning in children. The City is also planning to inspect homes for lead. Someone I know received news that their children had low levels of lead. The inspector reported that their house was uninhabitable. Uninhabitable is a scary word. In this case it didn’t mean everyone had to move out; what it meant was that the owner needed to spend $30,000 on lead abatement.

Of course, the cost lead abatement and asbestos abatement projects are highly inflated. If you want 5 rooms painted the estimate might be for $1,500. If you mention lead or asbestos the same project cost is $4,500.

Lead poisoning is a legitimate health issue. It is also an economic issue fraught with danger. A highly publicized campaign that announces to the world that Cleveland homes are uninhabitable would devastate the local economy and end up doing very little to solve the problem.

What about Lakewood?

At some point the issue will have to be addressed. At what cost in property values? At what costs to homeowners? At what cost to tax revenue? There will be costs and they will be substantial.
There is a solution.

The City has transferred or will transfer $75 million to two private foundations, the Three Arches Foundation and the Healthy Lakewood Foundation. Since both Foundations are dedicated to a Healthy Lakewood why not use that money to solve the problem of lead poisoning?

Here is a simple plan of action:

1. The “consortium” of foundations that include Three Arches and Healthy Lakewood should fully fund a testing program for Lakewood children.
2. If children test positive the Foundations should fund the testing of all the homes.
3. The remediation cost should be paid for in whole or in part by the Foundations.

[Jim O'Bryan]

The issue of lead poisoning has been in the news recently. The City of Cleveland is beginning a program to test for lead poisoning in children. The City is also planning to inspect homes for lead. Someone I know received news that their children had low levels of lead. The inspector reported that their house was uninhabitable. Uninhabitable is a scary word. In this case it didn’t mean everyone had to move out; what it meant was that the owner needed to spend $30,000 on lead abatement.

Of course, the cost lead abatement and asbestos abatement projects are highly inflated. If you want 5 rooms painted the estimate might be for $1,500. If you mention lead or asbestos the same project cost is $4,500.

Lead poisoning is a legitimate health issue. It is also an economic issue fraught with danger. A highly publicized campaign that announces to the world that Cleveland homes are uninhabitable would devastate the local economy and end up doing very little to solve the problem.

What about Lakewood?

At some point the issue will have to be addressed. At what cost in property values? At what costs to homeowners? At what cost to tax revenue? There will be costs and they will be substantial.
There is a solution.

The City has transferred or will transfer $75 million to two private foundations, the Three Arches Foundation and the Healthy Lakewood Foundation. Since both Foundations are dedicated to a Healthy Lakewood why not use that money to solve the problem of lead poisoning?

Here is a simple plan of action:

1. The “consortium” of foundations that include Three Arches and Healthy Lakewood should fully fund a testing program for Lakewood children.
2. If children test positive the Foundations should fund the testing of all the homes.
3. The remediation cost should be paid for in whole or in part by the Foundations.

Bill

You might get some mileage with Councilman Anderson on this idea. Back in 2015 while we spoke of various aspects of the hospital deal, he spoke of lead issues, and possible lead issues in Lakewood. How he could see the Foundations helping. While paint is not the problem it is in other cities, pipes, water, homes still have issues.

File under FWIW


.

[Bill Call]

Bill

You might get some mileage with Councilman Anderson on this idea. Back in 2015 while we spoke of various aspects of the hospital deal, he spoke of lead issues, and possible lead issues in Lakewood. How he could see the Foundations helping. While paint is not the problem it is in other cities, pipes, water, homes still have issues.

File under FWIW


.

Thanks. I encourage Councilman Anderson and the board members of the two foundations to begin a public discussion of this issue.

I do have to point out that City Council and the Mayor quite deliberately surrendered any control or influence over the two foundations. While the City Council and Mayor could ask for money the Foundations are free to ignore the requests.

[cmager]

Bill
You might get some mileage with Councilman Anderson on this idea. Back in 2015 while we spoke of various aspects of the hospital deal, he spoke of lead issues, and possible lead issues in Lakewood. How he could see the Foundations helping. While paint is not the problem it is in other cities, pipes, water, homes still have issues. File under FWIW

Thanks. I encourage Councilman Anderson and the board members of the two foundations to begin a public discussion of this issue.
I do have to point out that City Council and the Mayor quite deliberately surrendered any control or influence over the two foundations. While the City Council and Mayor could ask for money the Foundations are free to ignore the requests.

Offer that The Foundations can test their children and homes first, and that they can throw a gala event to celebrate their pilot lead testing program in Lakewood. "Three Arches Foundation Gala Celebrates 'Three Arches Foundation Lead Testing Pilot Program' "

[Jim O'Bryan]

It has been brought to my attention.

The City of Lakewood has worked on the lead issues for 20 years and saw huge declines in the number of lead exposures in Lakewood.
As Lakewood is a highly transient community, we also have the issue of people moving here, testing higher, but no ability to track it back to other communities. The ability of agencies to share information is hampered by some existing laws

Also in the conversation single biggest exposure to lead, is in window sills that have not been replaced. Rarely are those scraped down. Also people scrapping paint off their homes and not disposing of it correctly. And of course, some plumbing in older homes.

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[Richard Baker]

Let me tell you an interesting story. There once was a Democrat nun that was the Mayor of Lakewood. When the city had contractors tear up and replace the Clifton Road street and replace the potable water main, she had the city test all the cities service lines to homes along the street for high lead levels. They replaced a few service lines but instead of replacing all the LEAD CITY SERVICE lines to the homes property lines, they allowed the existing city's LEAD service lines to remain that connected the home owners copper lines to the city's water line. No one but a Democrat moron would allow a lead service line to remain while replacing a water main and a street. Democrats are leaches that suck the blood out of their hosts and only have one interest, their political and self monetary rewards.

[Bill Call]

It has been brought to my attention.

The City of Lakewood has worked on the lead issues for 20 years and saw huge declines in the number of lead exposures in Lakewood.
As Lakewood is a highly transient community, we also have the issue of people moving here, testing higher, but no ability to track it back to other communities. The ability of agencies to share information is hampered by some existing laws

Also in the conversation single biggest exposure to lead, is in window sills that have not been replaced. Rarely are those scraped down. Also people scrapping paint off their homes and not disposing of it correctly. And of course, some plumbing in older homes.

.

Thanks. Did your source want to share any statistics?

The County web site shows that about 100 Lakewood Housing units are certified lead free.

I asked a couple of people with young children in Lakewood if they were ever tested and the answer was no. Shouldn't there be a testing of all children in Lakewood?

I few years ago a friend of mine was stripping all of the paint off his house. An housing inspector was driving by. He got out of his car and told my friend that he should not be stripping the house because of the possibility of lead exposure. My friend told him that this was the second time he had removed the paint and that there is no lead paint on his house. The inspector said OK and then went on his way.

Is this how lead inspections are handled?

How many of the 28,000 housing units in Lakewood have been inspected?

[Richard Baker]

So Lakewood is to start home inspections for lead, more of the much to do about nothing from the City's band of the inept and inert. Every house built before 1968 has lead paint in it. Feed your kids, let them have sweets every once and a while, and they won't eat the lead paint. The biggest risk in Lakewood to children exposure to lead paint is the City]s lead water service lines to homes and businesses.

Do you rally know what is laughable, when the city was resurfacing streets and replacing the water mains, they did not replace the lead service lines to the home owners copper lines. They tested all the homes water but only replaced the lead service lines that were leaching lead into the water producing very high levels of lead readings

Take the lead service line issue to the next Lakewood City council meeting. Their caned response will be, it's safe because they make periodic tests at a few locations for water quality in Lakewood. In reality they are telling you that the fifty year plus old lead service lines will never leach lead into the water that your children drink, ever. Ask the Mayor and City Council if only one lead service line out of a 100 is leaching lead into water that children are drinking [the average when they tested Clifton Road homes water] is that an acceptable risk. They will redirect their response back to lead water lines are safe, although lead water lines have been permanent banned because they were leaching lead into drinking water. If they didn't care about the children with catastrophic illness or injuries travel times for a hospital trauma care center, why would they care about the random lead poisoning of children due to their lead service lines?