ONE ON ONE | Gary Singer Lead problem persists, program director says

Q. Why did you study counseling in college? That doesn't seem to go along with what you do for a living?
A. I just thought I might like to get a master's degree in counseling and see if I wanted to do that. But at the time I was involved in housing and I never really did anything with my counseling degree. But I always had an interest in talking to people and working out problems. Maybe working in mediation is one way I can actually do that.
Q. How did you get involved in mediation?
A. I met Jan Bailey, the head of Mahoning Valley Dispute Resolution Service, and I asked her if I could take the classes to become a general mediator and a family mediator. I've been mediating for about three or four years now. I do it only on a volunteer basis.
Q. Do you enjoy it?
A. Oh yes. I just find it very interesting. I'll tell you, when you do a family mediation it's a lot different than a general mediation. If you have people fighting over a concrete driveway or a swimming pool or a landlord-tenant dispute, and then you get the emotions of people fighting over child custody or child support, I mean it's a whole different area. I like when they all come to an agreement, if I can help.
Q. Have you ever thought of a career in counseling?
A. When I retire I'd like to do more mediation. I just don't have the time to do any more right now. But I would still do it on a volunteer basis.
Q. How did you get involved in the lead abatement program?
A. I was director of operations for the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority for approximately 10 years. One of the things that we did was make the public housing units lead-safe for the residents. We made over 1,000 houses lead-safe. We knew the lead laws and the techniques to make housing units lead-safe.
About four years ago, the county asked me if I'd help them write a grant for lead hazard control. I wrote certain sections of the grant and it was funded in 1997 for $4.3 million. Then the county was looking for a director with both lead and housing backgrounds, and I guess I was a good match.
Q. When was that?
A. In February 1997 I came over to the county and became director of the program. At that time there was no staff, there was no program. We had to build the program from the ground up. To give you an idea how much we've grown, for the first grant we had 13 working partners and $600,000 in match money. This latest grant we're applying for in May, we'll have between 55 and 60 working partners and approximately $9.8 million in match money.
Q. What is a working partner?
A. A working partner is some organization in the community that has agreed to either give us money for making houses lead-safe, or they have agreed to partner with us on education or lead-screening of children. Some give us match money, some give us in-kind money. There are different kinds of partners.
Q. What are lead hazards in houses?
A. Lead in paint, lead in soil and lead in dust. The main way kids get lead poisoned is dust. It affects children under 6 years of age. But the age group that's most affected is kids 6 to 12 months. Where are those kids? Crawling on the floor? What do they do? Everything is hand-to-mouth. They ingest the dust, and it doesn't take much lead dust to poison a child.
Q. Why didn't people who grew up in the 1950s and '60s get lead poisoning?
A. People ask me that a lot, and it's a legitimate question. When I grew up, I had a mother, father, brother, sister. We sat down and ate three meals a day. I had a balanced diet. Families in the '50s and 60's tended to do that. I believe that kids today tend not to have a balanced diet. If your body lacks in calcium or iron, the body is more likely to mistake lead for those minerals that you need. A balanced diet will help mitigate against being lead poisoned in the sense that your body is not as readily absorbing lead.
Q. Anything else?
A. Yes. Secondly, the front porch that I crawled on when I was a kid got scrubbed by my mom all the time. Housekeeping habits in those days were a lot different than they are today for young families. I think young families today just don't pay as much attention to housekeeping. And what's the main culprit in poisoning? The lead dust on the floor where kids crawl. If proper housekeeping isn't done, there's a greater tendency for kids to be lead poisoned.
Q. What about lead-based paint?
A. In the '50s and '60s, the steel mills were going great-guns. People had jobs and worked at the steel mills. A lot of people "borrowed" paint from the steel mills. They took it home, they painted their front porch, they painted their siding, they painted everything. I mean, practically everybody in the neighborhood got their house painted with paint from the steel mills. They used it for everything.
The paint was free, but it had high concentrations of lead in it. When the houses were intact and painted, it was not a problem. Now these same homes haven't been painted in 25 to 30 years and the lead-based paint is deteriorating, creating lead dust. It settles on the window troughs, window sills and floors, where the children can get to it.
Q. Is lead poisoning only a problem for children?
A. No, anyone can be lead poisoned.
Q. What are the symptoms?
A. There's a lot of symptoms. It's almost asymptomatic. There's behavior difficulties, learning difficulties, attention deficit problems. Lead is highly toxic and can affect virtually every system of the body. Childhood lead poisoning causes reduced intelligence, reading and learning disabilities and has been linked to juvenile delinquency and many other adverse health effects.
Q. Are you close to abating the problem?
A. Lead poisoning is epidemic in the city of Youngstown. I don't think this problem will be solved for many, many years. It's a very large problem in our area.
Q. You mentioned that you are crazy about the Arizona Wildcats basketball team. Why is that?
A. My family lives in Tucson, Ariz., and I go there to visit them. They are nuts about Arizona basketball and they take me to the games with them. I just love to watch them play. I stay up late at night and watch them whenever they're on TV.
Q. Do you follow any other sports?
A. Yes, the Cleveland Browns and the Indians. I love the Browns and the Indians but they never win anything.
Q. You're a movie buff? What kind of movies do you like?
A. I love science-fiction movies.
Q. Got a favorite movie?
A. "The Day the Earth Stood Still." I would say that would be my favorite science-fiction movie.
Q. What do you like about sci-fi?
A. I like the technology, the unknown, the space exploration, when they find new and wonderful worlds and new mysteries.
Q. If you could pick any other career, what would it be?
A. I always thought I would liked to have become a lawyer.
Q. Why?
A. I think you can do a lot of good if you have the right knowledge.
Q. Why didn't you do it?
A. Like everything else, not enough time.
XTHE WRITER/ Bob Jackson, Vindicator Courthouse reporter, conducted the interview.