Wisconsin Public Television
  Transcript: In Wisconsin 431
  Original Airdate:
  
  Patty Loew:
  Hello and welcome to "In Wisconsin", I'm Patty Loew. This week as thoughts begin to
  turn to summer, find out why some of the most popular Lake Michigan beaches are often
  closed to swimming and what can be done about it. 
  
  Karen Raymore:
  We have over 300 miles of shorefront, so those beaches are very important, not just to
  the business community but to the residents and to the quality of life. 
  
  mother:
  What's in there? 
  
  Loew:
  Spend a day with these visually impaired students as they get a vision of their future. 
  
  male voice:
  Gives them a chance to be on their own. It also helps them with decision-making and
  how to be tough, basically. 
  
  Loew:
  And pound the pavement with a couple of small town newspaper reporters 
  
  student:
  Pulaski news. 
  
  Loew:
  who juggle news deadlines and homework. We also have a rare up-close glimpse of
  Whooping Cranes here for the summer "In Wisconsin." 
  
  narrator:
  Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by people of Alliant Energy, who bring
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  web. The University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, providing cancer
  research, education, and treatment. UW-Comprehensive Cancer Center. Comprehensive
  as designated by the National Cancer Institute. Information available on the web.
  Wisconsin's technical colleges, providing local education for the crucial occupations
  essential to our communities. Wisconsin's technical colleges, communities first!
  
  Loew:
  Every year when summer rolls around it seems like we hear about beach closings.
  According to the state department of natural resources, last summer Milwaukee County
  beach water quality was some of the worst in the state. When tested, two of the county's
  beaches had e. coli levels that exceeded EPA standards more than 40% of the time. In
  contrast, samples from most Door County beaches exceeded EPA standards less than
  10% of the time. But while Door County's water problems may not seem as serious,
  county officials are leading the way when it comes to aggressively searching for
  solutions. Producer Liz Koerner reports on the county's efforts. 
  
  Liz Koerner:
  Colleen McDermott drives an hour-and-a-half every Tuesday all summer to get to work. 
  
  Colleen McDermott:
  There are a lot worse jobs than having to go to Door County once a week and collect
  water. 
  
  Koerner:
  Mc Dermott is a professor of microbiology at UW-Oshkosh. She drives to Door County
  every week in part to check on her students. Her students monitor water quality at public
  beaches in Door County. 
  
  McDermott:
  What we want to know is, has fecal material entered the water, because fecal material can
  contain a lot of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, all sorts of things that can make you sick. 
  
  Koerner:
  Students bring their samples to a lab in Sturgeon Bay. They go through an exacting
  process to count E. coli in each water sample. They post a warning if the E. coli count is
  too high. On a website, colored dots indicate whether beaches are open or closed. At the
  beach, they post signs, yellow for caution, red for closed. A year before students began
  counting E. coli, Door County water made headline news. 69 people got sick after
  swimming at Nicolet Beach. 
  
  Karen Raymore:
  Door County is known for all of its waterfront. We have over 300 miles of shore front, so
  those beaches are very important, not just to the business community but to the residents
  and to the quality of life in Door County.
  
  Koerner:
  The Door County Public Health Department decided to monitor water quality at 28
  public beaches. But the county didn't have enough money or a large enough staff to get
  the work done. Then, help arrived. In 2003, the Wisconsin Beach Program received
  money as a result of the Federal Beach Act. The money pays for monitoring at public
  beaches along the great lakes. Door County used the money to hire McDermott and her
  students, but McDermott wanted to do more than just monitor the water. 
  
  McDermott:
  We go through a process to determine what bacterial pathogens, those that can make you
  sick, are found in the water. Specifically we're looking for salmonella, for shigella and
  for a bacterium called campylobacter that people probably are less familiar with, but still
  cause GI Tract problems. 
  
  Koerner:
  McDermott also wanted to know the source of the pathogens, human or animal. 
  
  McDermott:
  Humans are going to carry pathogens that make humans sick, so if you are exposed to
  human feces that's the worst. 
  
  Koerner:
  Tracking the source starts with collecting specimens for comparison.
  
  McDermott:
  So, a very glamorous part of the job is collecting avian waste.  Goose and duck are our
  primary feces in Door County. Human influent, what comes into the water treatment
  plant, all of the potential sources that we can think of that could contaminate the water
  from people, from cattle, from dogs. 
  
  Koerner:
  Back at the Halsey Science Center in Oshkosh, students work with the waste samples,
  weighing, mixing with a sterile solution, filtering and incubating. The goal is to grow
  colonies of e. coli. The next step is called DNA Fingerprinting. 
  
  Todd Sandrin:
  Much like we can discriminate between people with fingerprints from their actual
  fingers, DNA fingerprints allow us to do something similar with other organisms, in this
  case micro-organisms.
  
  Koerner:
  The laboratory process starts with extracting DNA from the E. coli. It ends with
  researchers comparing the DNA fingerprints of a known source, like avian waste to the
  fingerprint of beach water. 
  
  Sandrin:
  This column of bands on the left represents a DNA fingerprint from E. coli from one
  potential source, perhaps avian waste, while the second column of bands represents a
  DNA fingerprint from E. coli, perhaps isolated from water. If this was the case and as
  you can see, these are very different banding patterns, this would suggest that the avian
  waste is not the source of the microbial contamination at this particular beach. 
  
  Koerner:
  McDermott's research shows that city beaches have the worst water quality. That's
  because a stew of human and animal waste can mix into storm water that drains onto the
  beach. That's the case at Sturgeon Bay's Otumba beach. 
  
  McDermott:
  Otumba we found everything. We found dog, E. coli that comes from dog's fecal
  material. We found a little bit of E. coli that comes from human fecal material and the
  avian, the gull primarily. Again, it's that mixed population of organisms. Unfortunately a
  solution then becomes tougher, how do you deal with this mixed population? 
  
  Anthony Depies:
  At Sturgeon Bay, we have upped our street sweeping program to try and clean our streets
  as good as possible. We have not found other good solutions to that problem. The
  beaches are the public access to the water. And the storm sewer has to discharge to a
  public waterway. 
  
  Koerner:
  Mcdermott's research shows that E. coli levels are high right after it rains. So Sturgeon
  Bay closes city beaches for 12 hours every time it rains more than 3/10ths of an inch. 
  
  Depies:
  That first flush seems to be the big source of E. coli, because after a while, even if it
  continues to rain, our beaches clean up or have less of an e. coli than can be found in the
  water near them. 
  
  Koerner:
  After we spoke to Debbie, Sturgeon Bay passed a storm water runoff ordinance. The
  ordinance requires that commercial property owners reduce runoff and clean up the water
  that does leave their property. For the remaining runoff that reaches city beaches,
  McDermott suggests a solution. 
  
  McDermott:
  Taking that storm water and extending pipes further out into the lake would help beach
  health if we could bring it out further and dilute out the storm water instead of dropping it
  right on the sand at your beach where it's going to be a contaminating source for anybody
  that's swimming, particularly children. 
  
  Koerner:
  Mcdermott also wants to find out if storm water runoff is the only source of pollution.
  Aging sewage pipes could be leaking into the storm water system.  If that's the case,
  solutions could be costly.
  
  Raymore:
  The fact is, there is a cost associated when you are making major infrastructure changes
  to accommodate storm water runoff. But to look at it strictly as a cost, and not look at the
  economic impact of the travel and hospitality industry in Door County is really short-
  sighted. That being the primary industry in Door County, we're talking about the
  economic health of the entire county. 
  
  McDermott:
  When I first started this work, I thought maybe we'd have problems that the people who
  are interested in tourism and commerce would not be receptive to some of the things we
  wanted to do. Source tracking and the monitoring and the fact that we could close
  beaches. But we've had really very little problems. People are supportive and they want
  to know. They want to do the best they can for the community and for the people that
  come to Door County. 
  
  Loew:
  In 2002, the National Resource Defense Council gave Door County the "beach bum"
  award. In 2005, Door County earned a "beach buddy" award, which is given to areas that
  have taken major steps to identify and reduce beach pollution. If you'd like to find out
  about the water quality at a beach near you, you can find a link to that information on our
  website at wpt.org/inwisconsin. 
  
  Loew:
  As spring turns to summer, the school year is ending and many students are getting ready
  to graduate. But first, they have to get through finals. And for the students at Janesville's
  Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, there's an additional final beyond what they
  learned in textbooks. Art Hackett reports the seniors at this school are also tested on their
  independence skills. Skills that prepare them for real life after school.
  
  Art Hackett:
  Stephanie Kraft, solo, kicks off the ode to the Lifehouse, a musical celebration of
  Wisconsin's center for the Blind and Visually Impaired's newest project. 
  
  student:
  Hey Steph, you want to help me out and use your key?
  
  Hackett:
  The school almost closed in 1997 due to declining enrollment. It stayed open, but the
  legislature told it to expand its mission to visually impaired students who attend local
  schools and to do a better job of preparing residential students for independent living. 
  
  Peggy Trainer:
  It is a home. It's like your own house, it takes a while to get used to it.
  
  Hackett:
  In the past, students would spend some time in what was called an apartment, but that
  barely qualified as independent. 
  
  Kate Mennenga:
  The dorm parents were right outside in the hall. The bells schedule would still ring in the
  dorm, so that kind of got them up in the morning. They weren't totally on their own. 
  
  Hackett:
  But that's changed. Kraft who is from Rock County and Katie Miner of Green Bay are
  among the first students to spend time in what the school calls the Lifehouse. It used to
  be the superintendent's quarters. It's about a block away from the school's main building.
  It's home to a one-week sink or swim program where students get a chance at
  independent living. 
  
  Trainer:
  Okay Steph, now you have to come this way. 
  
  Mennenga:
  We hope students would spend a minimum of two weeks there, up to possibly a month or
  longer. And really, to give them a really good taste of what it is to be independent,
  because they're separate from our campus because it's a different location. (Piano
  playing) 
  
  Stephanie Kraft:
  I went here when I was six. I left in fourth grade and then I came back here two years
  ago. 
  
  Hackett:
  Stephanie Kraft is 18. She has shifted back and forth between local public schools and
  the state school in Janesville. She is totally blind. 
  
  Kraft:
  I had more of a social life here, because I still stayed in contact with all my friends that
  were here when I was in public school. And I thought that I could get better music
  training.  They didn't really want to teach me music in public schools. I couldn't learn
  Braille music in public school, either. 
  
  Katie Miner:
  My teachers wanted me to come down here, not me. They were concerned about my
  grades and the lack of daily living skills that I was not getting there. 
  
  Hackett:
  19-year-old Katie Miner has very limited vision. She's been at Janesville for only one
  semester. 
  
  Miner:
  I was kind of crying and really not wanting to come down here at first. But now after I
  came down here, I've learned to adjust to the whole surroundings of the school. 
  
  Miner:
  Freezer's right there. 
  
  Hackett:
  During their stay in the Lifehouse, the residents spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
  They're expected to make all of their own meals. During her first morning at the
  Lifehouse, Miner is making a snack for when guests come over in the evening. 
  
  Miner:
  I'm making mounds bars. It has graham crackers, chocolate, coconut, peanut butter,
  sugar. 
  
  Hackett:
  Occupational therapist Kate Mennenga and teacher Peggy Trainer dropped by to see how
  things were going and offer home-ec advice and things were going slow with the mounds
  bar. 
  
  Trainer:
  Get your rolling pin and start brushing. 
  
  Hackett:
  What the students are really looking forward to is entertaining other students, inviting
  them over to watch a movie. 
  
  Kraft:
  I worked the VCR.
  
  Hackett:
  Stephanie says her favorite is "The Wedding Singer" with Adam Sandler.
  
  Hackett:
  Unlike appliances in classrooms at the school which have been adapted for the visually
  impaired, the items in the Lifehouse are not. 
  
  Mennenga:
  Well in terms we are trying to purchase the common product that these students might
  buy, as well. 
  
  Trainer:
  The adaptive equipment like this talking microwave over here is $350. So many students
  financially could not afford that.
  
  Hackett:
  The students make at least three trips back and forth to the school in a day. They're at
  school until 4:30 for choir practice. 
  
  Hackett:
  Have sore feet? 
  
  Kraft:
  Yes. From these sandals. 
  
  Miner:(from background)
  Then don't wear sandals.
  
  Kraft:
  Oh gosh. That was stupid because that's all I brought. 
  
  Hackett:
  A staff member is in the house at all times, but is there only to deal with an emergency. 
  
  Kraft:
  We can't have any contact with her. That's why we can call her the ghost. If staff are in
  here, they're not supposed to interact with anybody that's living in here, like any of the
  kids that are living in here. 
  
  Kraft:
  Cancel, where's cancel? 
  
  Kraft:
  Because you're supposed to be living on your own when you are in here and you're
  supposed to get used to that. 
  
  Kraft:
  I got it, I cleared it. Never mind, I did it, Katie. 
  
  Hackett:
  But the two residents are somewhat dependent on each other. Kraft has trouble locating
  objects in an unfamiliar environment. 
  
  Miner:
  Well, anyway, I'll just put it in the oven. 
  
  Hackett:
  Items in the kitchen are labeled in Braille. Kraft reads Braille, Miner does not. 
  
  Miner:
  Stephanie, make sure you lock the door. 
  
  Hackett:
  Two days later, Kraft and Miner are getting ready for their last night in the Lifehouse. 
  
  Miner:
  Yeah. 
  
  Hackett:
  Frozen pot roast is in a crock-pot. 
  
  Kraft:
  Quincy wants to come over later, at like 8:00. 
  
  Miner:
  What time are we going to eat though? 
  Kraft:
  I don't know. 
  
  Hackett:
  Quincy is Quincy Washington, Kraft's boyfriend. Other students start arriving. Around
  7:00, Quincy shows up. He was one of the first students to stay in the Lifehouse. 
  
  Miner:
  Hey Steph, good job of playing the piano. 
  
  Quincy Washington:
  It lets them -- gives them a chance to be on their own. And it also helps them with
  decision-making and how to be tough, basically. 
  
  Kraft:
  We should probably unplug it. I don't know. 
  
  Hackett:
  The stay in the Lifehouse came at the end of Kraft's years at the Janesville school. She
  almost passed up the offer to participate in the program. 
  
  Kraft:
  I thought it would be too much, because it was getting towards the end of the year. It's
  really not. It's not that bad at all. It's really cool. 
  
  Washington:
  Smells good. 
  
  Hackett:
  After four days in the Lifehouse, she now says she doesn't want to leave it. 
  
  Washington:
  I got to get the recipe. 
  
  Kraft:
  No, I do not want to leave. I don't want to move out of here. 
  
  Loew:
  Since Art produced that report, Stephanie has gone on to technical college. Katie
  graduates this spring a plans to return home to look for work.
  
  Loew:
  We head now to Pulaski for a behind-the-scenes look at the workings of the town
  newspaper. What makes the Pulaski News unique is that while its reporters are a part of
  the community's civic process, most of them are probably too young to vote. School just
  started at Pulaski High, but seniors Doug Obermann and Brenna Dee Hansen are leaving.
  They're not skipping class, they're on assignment. They're going to the Pulaski chase co-
  op to learn about agronomy and spring planting. 
  
  Loew:
  And you'll be able to read all about it in the next issue of the The Pulaski News. The
  newspaper published by Pulaski High School. But it's not a school paper. Pulaski news is
  the Village of Pulaski's newspaper. Sold around town and mailed to about 3,000
  subscribers. And it's written entirely by students like Hansen and Obermann. 
  
  Brenna Dee Hansen:
  People are willing to talk to us and are willing to accept us and answer our questions and
  take time out of their day to take us on tours or answer questions. 
  
  Doug Obermann:
  Yeah, I think the reputation that Ms. Gerds and Pulaski News has built over the years has
  helped us to earn respect. 
  
  Kathy Gerds:
  I'm looking at this issue of Pulaski News. 
  
  Loew:
  Ms. Gerds is Kathy Gerds. She's the newspaper advisor and teaches the classes that turn
  out the newspaper every two weeks. 
  
  Gerds:
  We offer English credit for Pulaski News.  Part of our mission, part of our classic
  community school philosophy is that we're educating citizens. 
  
  Loew:
  The students educate themselves by educating Pulaski citizens through their reporting on
  community events. As you'd expect from a student newspaper, there is a lot of coverage
  of student activities at school. But they also report on the school board and cover local
  elections. 
  
  Gerds:
  We're going to say what office the person is running for. 
  
  Gerds:
  When we were putting in new sewer systems in the village we knew all about sewer
  systems.  We know a lot of strange stuff at Pulaski News.
  
  Loew:
  The Pulaski news was first published by the school in 1938 when the great depression
  caused the town's paper to fold. Advertising pays the costs of production. And Gerds'
  salary is paid by the school district. A small group of students is paid to work on the
  paper over the summer. With obituaries, engagement announcements and coverage of the
  future farmers and lions club, Pulaski News is hard to distinguish from other small town
  papers. There is one thing that sets the paper apart.
  
  Gerds:
  Some presses need to go out there and find out what's wrong and expose it.  My press is
  a good positive press.  We cover community events and we cover things with a positive
  spin on events.
  
  student:
  You are actively involved with the relay for life. 
  
  Loew:
  That positive spin is easy to find when you are sent to a business to write a story about
  support for a cancer walk. But sometimes bad news finds you, as Gerds learned her first
  year on the job. A high school student suffered a massive seizure behind the wheel. 
  
  Gerds:
  A horrible thing happened. He lost control of the great big car he was driving and he
  crashed into a group of five eighth grade girls. The press did this: Speeding auto kills five
  Pulaski girls. With a picture of the car and people holding up sheets so you couldn't see
  the bodies. It was horrible. I knew the Press Gazette and all the rest of the media in the
  world would take care of the gory details. We didn't need that in my newspaper. So what
  we did was this. I called the families and I said, send me artwork, send us poetry, send us
  their pictures, send us how you want your daughters remembered forever. 
  
  Loew:
  Sometimes bad news comes from the other side of the world. 
  
  Gerds:
  Brian Jerabek was a Pulaski High School student who four months after high school
  graduation was dead in Iraq. He was a beautiful, handsome, intelligent wonderful boy,
  and he enlisted in the Marines and he was killed. It was so hard. So hard. 
  
  Ken Jerabek:
  The Pulaski newspaper has kept Ryan's memory alive. 
  
  Loew:
  Ken Jerabek is Ryan's father. 
  
  Jerabek:
  The whole community has been behind us. The support that we've had come from the
  Pulaski School District through the newspaper has been overwhelming. 
  
  Gerds:
  We covered the event: Death of a Hero.
  Gerds:
  I want them to become thoughtful writers. And to realize that what they write is
  important. They're going to gain a sense of "community is important." 
  
  Hansen:
  About how old is this building? 
  
  male voice:
  The original plant was built in 1968. 
  
  Obermann:
  Every story there's a chance to learn something new. 
  
  Gerds:
  Perfect, Perfect, Perfect.
  
  Loew:
  The Pulaski News is also attracting national recognition. In 2005, the Pulaski Community
  School District was awarded the civic star award for Wisconsin, for the newspaper
  program at Pulaski High School. The award is sponsored by the American Association of
  School Administrators. That's our program for this week. Join us next week when we'll
  introduce you to a teen who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of four. He beat the
  odds and is now part of a new clinical program designed to help him make the jump into
  a healthy future. 
  
  young cancer survivor:
  I can run and jump and skate and just be normal. 
  
  Loew:
  That's next time. Finally, we have an update on one of our past stories. We reported on
  the Whooping Cranes that are being trained with ultralite planes to migrate south. This
  week, two chicks hatched in a center from eggs originally laid in Necedah. The eggs
  were rescued after the parent cranes abandoned the nest. The pair of baby cranes are the
  first in 100 years to be hatched from wild Whooping Cranes living in the Northeastern
  United States. We leave you now with a look at some of the adult Whooping Cranes in
  Necedah. Enjoy. And for "In Wisconsin", I'm Patty L.oew. See you next time.