Gillen lease proposed for Grand Trunk Yards

Edward E. Gillen Company, the Milwaukee-based marine contractor, would occupy 15 acres on two parcels of the approximately 30-acre former Grand Trunk Yards railway site if the Milwaukee Board of Harbor Commissioners approves a proposed lease agreement that was tabled at an Oct. 12 committee meeting.

The Grand Trunk Yards include at least 4.9 acres of wetlands, though the area identified as wetland on a Port of Milwaukee map would not be leased to Gillen.

Gillen would occupy 1.4 acres just off the 1900 block of S. Marina Drive for a 10,000-square-foot office complex to contain its consolidated headquarters.

Gillen’s yard complex would occupy 13.6 noncontiguous acres to the north and west, including the southwestern portion of the peninsula that juts into the Kinnickinnic River turning basin—the vacant land that can be observed when looking northeast from the Barnacle Bud’s patio.

Here Gillen would have dockside reception and a loading facility for rip-rap and other construction aggregate, according to the proposed lease. (The grain towers and land northeast of the existing railroad line that divides the peninsula are not part of the lease.)

The lease would also be contingent on the city cooperating with Gillen’s efforts to secure Harbor Grant funds or other public financing for the property improvements—possibly state, federal, or tax-incremental financing.

The proposed lease would run from June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2035, with the tenant having the option to extend two 15-year periods after that. The city would be required to provide three-year’s notice if it opted to replace Gillen as a tenant.

The proposed lease is for $13,588 per acre per year (just over $203,000 annually, assuming 15 acres), plus a throughput charge of $.40 per metric ton with the tenant agreeing to a minimum throughput of 7,500 metric tons per year (at least $3,000 annually), and wharfage at a rate of $1,800 a month.

No subleasing without city permission or hazardous materials storage would be permitted.

According to the proposed lease, “Tenant agrees that it shall not develop, build upon, or disturb those areas of the [p]roperty currently identified as state or federally protected wetlands.”

Relocation of Gillen from its current 218 W. Becher St. headquarters on the Kinnickinnic River to the Grand Trunk Yards site would happen in phases and should be completed by Dec. 31, 2012, according to the draft lease.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners’ Finance and Personnel Committee met Oct. 12 to consider the lease, among other items, but tabled the lease due to concerns over the financing deal not yet being worked out.

Attorney Fintan Dooley and Bay View resident Greg Bird disseminated a draft land-use plan for the Grand Trunk Yards site that would restore wetland hydrology and ecosystems.

Their map was generally compatible with the uses anticipated with the proposed lease to Gillen, with some exceptions, the main being that a “foliated fringe” along the waterway near S. Marina Drive was not identified as a natural area on the proposed lease.

Broads create smart, bold comedy

On a recent Monday night up in Melissa Kingston’s Bay View Terrace condo, the four ladies of broadminded comedy were busy discussing zombies. In particular, zombies of the Resident Evil variety, and if their audience will make the connection between the evil corporation in the video games and Microsoft.

Zombies made the agenda as Milwaukee’s only all-female comedy troupe planned its final show of the year, Lions and Tigers and Zombies?, which opens mid-November at Bay View’s Alchemist Theatre.

Affectionately known as the broads, since 2006 Stacy Babl, Anne Graff LaDisa, Kingston, and Megan McGee have written and performed comedy sketches on topics ranging from current events and politics to pop and geek culture. Think Saturday Night Live, but much smarter, even less afraid, and more local—with added gender-bending twists.

The broads have learned how to mix physical and low-brow humor with clever, biting satire or witty spoofs. Just one example—a sketch written by McGee where real humans act out the poking, friending, and sheep-throwing synonymous with virtual friendships on Facebook.

Each of their shows has a theme. Lions and Tigers and Zombies? follows the likes of Science & Surplus and Blue Plate Special. The broads have portrayed everything from drunk, beer-bellied male deer hunters up north; to pit-scratching, drug-addicted primates in a lab; to toga-clad senators debating curriculum planning in ancient Rome.

So zombies are really not too far afield, and the diversity of the broads’ real-world interests and backgrounds provides fodder for a wide range of material.

“That’s the good thing about having four different people,” McGee said. “You have totally different viewpoints. If one person doesn’t get it, that’s kind of like, ‘Is a quarter of the audience not going to get it?’”

The broads say they ultimately write for themselves and figure that if at least one of them finds a joke funny, chances are some in the audience will, too.

Who Are These Broads?

Each of the four quick-witted broads is college-educated, and each brings different styles and experiences to the creative process.

McGee’s onstage persona snaps like an energetic Slinky. She’s brought to life characters ranging from the nasal misfit, Helen, who cites her adherence to the metric system in defense of a skirt length that violates the office policy by two inches, to a hooded male teenager with excessively baggy jeans confessing his “rebel” aspirations to a priest. “People didn’t realize who it was,” McGee said of the wannabe rebel. “It’s fun to get to the point where you’re a different person. That’s hard to pull off.”

More recently, she played a stodgy anthropology professor who breaks down the history of everything with a rapid-fire narration to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”—synched to a slideshow that poked fun at both science and creationism.

Offstage, when she’s not working in customer service for Direct Supply, the Riverwest resident is also one determined broad. McGee spends hours editing the group’s videos and scoured The Wizard of Oz for material for the upcoming show. She said she’s always looking for ways to push things to be funnier, to, in her words, “punch them up.”

Graff LaDisa, a Wauwatosa resident who by day is a pharmacist at Aurora Sinai Hospital, is the most soft-spoken of the group. One of her favorite characters to portray was the loveable Pluto, forced to deal with its ex-planet status at the equivalent of an interplanetary high school dance. And then there’s her recurring Sally Ann, the inspiration for broadminded’s “My boyfriend is a Jedi” T-shirts.

“She was in our very first show, and that sketch was one of the first things I wrote for broadminded,” Graff LaDisa said. “She’s just an awkward, nerdy teenager, but at the same time she has a confidence about her because she knows who she is. It’s fun to see her interact with people because she lives in her own world.”

Graff LaDisa has also been known to tote out a guitar or ukulele to deliver a song—or quasi-song.

“I enjoy playing roles where there are opportunities for laughs without a word being spoken,” Graff LaDisa said. “It challenges your sense of comedic timing, and when you get it right, it feels great.”

Kingston, a Bay View resident who teaches kindergarten in Oak Creek, is extroverted and boisterous both onstage and off, with a bounding energy that doubtless carries over into her classroom. She speaks excitedly with small hand gestures, and, in conversation, punctuates a characteristic spiel on politics with an oft-used question, “What’s up with that?”

Kingston’s characters range widely, though she often is cast as a doddering male, and can put on a number of thick foreign accents—and sometimes a thicker mustache to boot. She’s enjoyed playing Mary Poppins at a job placement workshop and Wildflower Gingerroot, “a hippie that has lost her way and ended up married to a right-wing Republican trucker who has showed her the error of her ways,” Kingston said.

She takes pride in addressing political and cultural topics through her writing. “I like that I was able to frame nuclear war/energy conservation in a fun dysfunctional family scene, and also I love that we anthropomorphized the planets into a teen drama,” said Kingston, who will play the zombie scarecrow in the new show.

Babl lives in Milwaukee and works at a hotel in human resources, but her broadminded alter-egos tend to be sarcastic and/or wild—she’s been prone to launch her body across the stage. “A high tolerance for pain has its rewards,” Babl said, “as does a mother who wouldn’t let her daughter with the gaping hole in her knee come in the house to clean up the wound until she stopped crying.”

Babl’s the force behind the sketch about zombies and Microsoft, and the issues she’s able to address through her characters are complex. She played Hubbard, a la L. Ron, in the aforementioned sketch where the ancient Romans debate their curriculum priorities. She also portrayed “a sarcastic and very pregnant woman” who called out “the ridiculous pregnant lady who walks past a person on the sidewalk smoking and is convinced her unborn baby is now harmed for life.” In Science & Surplus, Babl was crybaby North Korea in Kingston’s “Nuclear Family” sketch, and the wiry actress has a habit of transforming into Elvis when you least expect it.

McGee and Graff LaDisa met each other in the early 2000s at ComedySportz, where they played on the same minor league team, Your Dad’s Constituents, and later met Babl and Kingston. Broadminded first performed at the 2006 Milwaukee Sketch and Improv Fest, originally including three other women. Soon after, when time commitment needed to put together quality material became clear, the group shrank to its current four members.

Bay View’s Alchemist Theatre, with its theater-for-rent philosophy, has been the broads’ home base since it opened in 2007, though they’ve performed at the Chicago Sketch Fest, for private parties, and hope to go to Austin, Texas next year.

Bringing It All Together

Writing comedy that actually makes people laugh is hard enough, but the broads also create content collaboratively. “You might have an idea for a line,” Babl said, “but then [the others] up the ante, and it rolls and becomes hilarious.”

With four different personalities to reconcile, the broads developed rules and a regimen that sprang from their backgrounds in improv. One of broadminded’s rules is that everyone writes something for every show. A sketch’s author is also its director and usually an actor. Casting can be more collaborative.

“We’re at a point where if there’s a role that would probably make someone uncomfortable to play it, we’d probably cast them in it right away,” McGee said, with Kingston poking the mild-mannered Graff LaDisa in the ribs.

It also takes guts to share one’s work and be open to change. “When you bring a sketch that you think is good, and then you open it up, and [the other broads] are like [despondent sigh], you feel like you’re losing something that’s yours,” Kingston said.

“I researched molecular biology, and it took two hours,” Babl chimed in, commenting about the work it sometimes takes to write a sketch.

“But if you want more fart jokes, fine,” McGee said, laughing.

The broads are also students of their craft. Kingston points to a recent appearance by Betty White on Inside the Actors Studio, hosted by James Lipton, as a study in comedy. “You want to talk about someone who wouldn’t break [character]? That woman never breaks,” Kingston said.

Babl, who emulates the sarcasm of Arrested Development’s Michael Bluth, derives some inspiration from television shows like The Carol Burnett Show and Laugh-in. But she recently was an extra on the set of Entourage. Graff LaDisa complimented Babl on the organizational principles she brought back from her experience. “Instead of watching Jeremy Piven, she’s watching the script supervisor,” Graff LaDisa said. “Then she comes back and is like, ‘This is how we’re going to run our video.’”

Babl and McGee both graduated from the Second City Conservatory program in Chicago, a series of advanced improv classes. McGee is the only broad with a formal education in theater. She finds inspiration in a YouTube series, Auto-Tune the News, which parodies news clips by converting the speakers’ words into quantized song vocals.

The broads are sometimes fighting the perception that their shows are geared for only women.

“Yeah we’re all women, and yeah, that makes us unique, but it’s not like a chick flick,” Babl said. “We try to stop ourselves and say, ‘Is this only a female perspective?’”

McGee said the group’s tagline is “by women, for everyone.”

“We try hard to make things that are smart, clever, topical, relatable,” Kingston said.

Lions and Tigers and…Zombies?

Broadminded’s press release describes the November show as “The Wizard of Oz meets the Cranberries, pessimism meets optimism, the far west suburbs meets the central city.” Five of the sketches will be set to music.

For the program, Kingston wrote a musical mash-up, where different ideas and songs are mashed together, including a medley about voting that pits the apathetic versus “those that think voting is this magical part of citizenry.” Each person has her own song, one of which spoofs a John Lennon tune and another the already-parodied Avenue Q.

Some sketches get fully written out, while other sketches get “beat” out using more improvisational techniques. Still others are prerecorded, like Graff LaDisa’s commercial about a particular fast food sandwich.

Videos have become a staple of broadminded’s shows, as they allow time for costume changes and for material that doesn’t translate easily to stage. Past video sketches featured the symptoms of the fictional disease “Alcohol Induced Pole Dancing” and the “Statistics of Online Dating.”

Videos in between sketches also build and control the show’s rhythm, according to McGee, as do other theatrical transitions like short setups with a punch line before a blackout. For Zombies, for example, Babl wrote a short about the Black Friday shopping ritual.

Given the show’s title, McGee said she felt compelled to write two sketches spoofing The Wizard of Oz, which will bracket the show and may or may not involve live animals. “No one will get mauled,” McGee promised, adding that there will be no live lions or tigers. Live zombies, however, are guaranteed.

Michael Timm contributed to this report.

Broadminded comedy’s shows are recommended for age 14 and up. Lions and Tigers and Zombies? runs at the Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., 8pm on Nov. 12-13 and Nov. 19-21. Admission is $8.

QUIZ: How well do you know Bay View?

1. What is the shortest street in Bay View?*

2. What bar used to be a horse carriage house?

3. What business has a rooftop garden?

4. On what business logo can you find a galloping horse?

5. Who said this quote etched in stone in South Shore Park?

6. What Hilbert Street hideaway lies beyond this scene?

7. Whose S. Shore Drive house did this used to be?

8. What is the name of this park named for an alderman and newspaper publisher?

9. What free movie was shown at the 2010 South Shore Frolics?

10. What war did this monument initially commemorate?

11. What is a puddler?

12. How many people died in the 1886 Bay View Tragedy?

13. What does the word Kinnickinnic mean?

14. What famous actor attended Trowbridge Street School?

15. What happens inside this structure?

16. It’s not a helipad—what is it?

17. What is the alley behind the old Avalon called?

18. Where in Bay View do the Brewcity Bruisers roller girls practice?

19. What are the borders of Bay View?

20. What street is this iron well on?

*Special thanks to John Ebersol for surveying some of Bay View’s shortest streets to measure which was actually shortest.

1. Colorado Street at 276 feet just edges out Swain Court at 284 (unless you count Brunks Lane, at 123 feet, which has a street sign but doesn’t get plowed)

2. Tonic Tavern

3. Future Green

4. Palomino

5. Jane Hirshfield

6. Barnacle Bud’s

7. Beulah Brinton

8. Zillman Park, for Erwin Zillman

9. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

10. World War I

11. an ironworker

12. seven

13. tobacco blended with grass, from the Ojibwa

14. Spencer Tracy

15. drinking water pumped from Lake Michigan

16. Deep Tunnel access shaft

17. Frankenstein Alley

18. in an old warehouse near Sweet Water Organics

19. trick question

20. Pryor Avenue

The day Favre truly retires

Let’s talk Packers vs. Favre. As everyone knows by now but it doesn’t hurt to reiterate, Oct. 24 is the day of reckoning. Mark your calendar and block out 7:20-11pm. This is a Sunday night game that will be aired on your local NBC affiliate and, at least in the Cheddar Nation, it’s likely to top the ratings charts and attract Superbowl-caliber advertising—or at least Superbowl-caliber ad rates.

Even if you don’t like sports or don’t follow football, you may enjoy the spectacle: Will the ‘ol horned greybeard pull off more magic in Lambeau Field or will the semi-bearded pupil finally surpass the former mentor who’s gone to the dark side? There’s sure to be plenty of drama on and off the field.

My prediction: the Packers will defeat the visiting Vikings. I also predict the Green and Gold will best the Vikings in all three phases of the game. Look for a standout special teams play (Jordy Nelson, anyone?) to ignite the Packers when their command seems to be slipping after an onslaught of Adrian Peterson, and look for Rogers to start rough but persevere and get lots of help from Jermichael Finley. And how ‘bout that stoic Mason Crosby? He lost my allegiance last year, but over the first two games of 2010 he’s been earning it back.

Although the Packers visit the Building Formerly Known as the Metrodome on Nov. 21, if the Pack wins at home on Oct. 24, it will mark the true ending of the Favre era. With a loss to his former team, Favre will lose the hearts and minds of the commentators; then look for the humiliating implosion to start an ugly cascade in the Minnesota locker room. If only the Gunslinger hadn’t tossed that season-ending interception, or that other season-ending interception, or…(Ever feel that we’re the ones living in an alternate universe?)

Defensive Test

Last year, the Packers defensive secondary proved superb against almost everybody—except teams with veteran quarterbacks (or rookie Josh Freeman) who made Dom Capers look impotent to my critical eyes, especially on third and long. It’s early in the season yet, so I’m eager to see how this year’s defense matches up against smart quarterbacks.

As of this writing, rookie Sam Shields hasn’t looked all that sharp to me yet. If I’m Favre, I keep throwing hot slants Shields’ way whenever he plays soft coverage. If I’m Dom Capers, I get aggressive on every third down of seven or more yards. I like the way they played third down against the Bills, mixing up calls at the line and blitzing a blizzard of linebackers. I don’t like the way Capers has tended to call third and long, playing prevent that gives the quarterback too much time to find an open receiver.

Pressure in general was missing last year, and if Clay Matthews can stay hot, I think the defense will be effective throughout the season. Right now they’re a little thin, no oxymoron intended, at the defensive line (Who would have thought number-one draft pick Justin Harrell would go out with another injury, hey Ted?), so I don’t think they’ll be number one against the run in 2010.

If I’m right and the Packers win against Favre, a game McCarthy and company have been preparing for like none other, the hometown victory effect may be good for Wisconsin political incumbents. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences linked home team victories and votes for political incumbents. Of course, on Halloween, the Pack has to play Sanchez and the Jets, just two days before the general election.

Hidden distillery was inside

On the southwest corner of Superior and Potter stands a one-story, curved brick building, 1411 E. Potter Ave., connected to a two-story brick building.

During the 1930s and ’40s, a gas station occupied the present site of the curved building. The two-story brick building housed a first-floor grocery and second-floor apartment. In 1945 the curved building was constructed (three gas station buildings were incorporated into the new building) and was attached to the grocery building.

When current owner Robert Meyer bought the property from Louis Paradise in 1990, he discovered a secret room that once held a distillery and cooler for making bootleg liquor during Prohibition. Meyer presently uses the curved building for his woodworking hobby.

Milwaukee Guitar Club won’t string you along

A guitarist in the wilds of nature has three enemies: Darkness. Mosquitoes. Thirst.

So when guitarist and Bay View resident Brad Hoernke comes to South Shore Park on a muggy August evening, he’s prepared for all three. Little lights to read music by. A can of bug spray that looks to be from the 1970s. And beer, always beer.

Hoernke, a Milwaukee Public Works inspector, is one of the founders and core members of the Milwaukee Guitar Club, a loose-knit organization of guitarists from all over the Milwaukee area who met Tuesday evenings this summer at the south end of the park for an hours-long, laid-back jam session. With the change of seasons, the club now meets indoors at the Bay View Brew Haus on Tuesday evenings around 6:30pm.

It’s part social club, part music party, and part guitar clinic.

“It’s a nice mix, from semi-professionals to people who just started,” Hoernke said. “So many people don’t play their guitars at home and they want to. This is a chance for them to get out and get a little experience without the pressure of performing.”

I’m at the park, too, my own guitar in hand, because months ago I was asked to write the story of the club, and it’s just too fun to quit. The weekly commune with my fellow players—like Backwards Gary, who plays a right-handed guitar left-handed; Bob, who has a welcome bathroom in his truck; Denny J and Jilena, singing Johnny and Roseanne Cash; Don and Mel, the first people I met—is relaxed and a great way to learn some new tricks.

The club is just over a year old. After celebrating at the South Shore Frolics in July 2009, Hoernke invited a group of guitar-playing friends back to his basement to play. One of them was Ricardo Trinidad, also of Bay View. Trinidad, who runs a Milwaukee telecommunications firm, was the one who came up with the idea of a weekly club meeting.

When younger, Trinidad supported himself as a professional musician in Chicago and first saw a guitar club in New York City. “I was in Greenwich Village in a park, and I saw all these guys with guitars,” he said. “It was real informal. I hung out for a while, and thought I had to do something like this when I got back to Chicago.”

And he did, gathering a group of musician friends on Chicago’s North Avenue Beach every Saturday. “It was real easy to get spotted out there. In short order, there was a crowd, a full spectrum of musicians, young and old, black, white, Latino. There was a real mixture of music. That’s what I liked about it.”

That story inspired Hoernke and some of the others in the basement to commit to meeting weekly in public at South Shore Park.

News of the club’s existence spread primarily through word of mouth, with a significant assist from Bob Simmons—he of the bathroom truck—who faithfully posts a weekly ad on Craigslist about the club’s meetings.

Each Tuesday session is a little different, depending on who’s there. Hoernke estimates that over the last year, the club has seen more than 100 different people sit in, playing well over 500 songs.

One night in July, there were 30 people gathered; a few weeks later, just six. But the format is roughly the same regardless: Someone introduces a tune, explains the chord progression, and then everyone who wants to or who can plays and sings along.

“My idea is to play with people who are better than me, or play in different styles, so I can learn something,” Trinidad said.

Several regulars have used the club in lieu of guitar lessons. Melanie Warren, for example, was one of the original people in Hoernke’s basement and would show up at the park. “But I would just bring a book and hang out,” she said. “Then I was like, ‘Hey, these guys are having fun.’”

She knew three chords from when she was a teenager, and her partner, Don Madden, also a semi-professional player, showed her the 12-bar blues. This summer Mel was at the park every week playing along and occasionally leading songs.

Hoernke and Trinidad actively encourage the more reticent members to lead the group in as many songs as they want, even when pros or members of local bands, like The Britins and Old School Duo, are at the meeting. “Some of the established jam sessions,” Hoernke said, “are pretty stuck up about it; you only get one song and that’s it.” The Milwaukee Guitar Club is much more inclusive.

In the winter, and on rainy nights, and whenever the mosquitoes defeat the bug spray, the Milwaukee Guitar Club meets at the Bay View Brew Haus. Owner Steven Fix, himself a performing guitarist, has been very accommodating. Last March, as a fundraiser and in a bid for publicity, the club staged a concert with Milwaukee jazz guitarist Jack Grassel at the Brew Haus. Hoernke hopes to do more events there in the future, including possibly concerts by the club.

Trinidad, for his part, really wants to see the group expand, particularly in the diversity of musicians attending. He thinks that a meeting place more visible than a corner of South Shore Park, someplace like Bradford Beach, might attract more and different players. He is also interested in partnering with a local instrument retailer to spread the word, and draw more players to the jam sessions.

And the group is not just for guitarists, Hoernke said. Over the past year, the group has seen many instruments you’d expect, like banjo, bass, and harmonica. But there have been violins, mandolins, keyboards, and drums. Once, he said, someone brought a harmonium, which is a wind-powered keyboard instrument.

He stressed that the Milwaukee Guitar Club is for any and everybody. “It’s what the people want it to be,” he said. “If you don’t like it one week, come back the next, and it will be different.”

I, for one, will be back next week.

Meet Barry Jones — a good egg

April 7, 2011 Update: Jones Family Farm ceases its operations.

On a crisp September morning, Barry Jones and his wife, Teri, of Jones Family Farm in Racine County, sold dozens of eggs and frozen chickens to eager customers clustered around their booth at the South Shore Farmers Market.

They were out of eggs by 10:30am.

When one has a good product, word gets around fast.

Jones raises Bovan varieties, used for egg production, and broilers, which are raised for their meat. All of his chickens are free-range, Jones said, meaning the poultry are not caged or confined to buildings except during the evening hours to keep them safe from predators.

Free-range agriculture allows the birds to move about, flap their wings, and get fresh air and exercise. This leads to healthier and happier chickens, Jones said. The chickens also get a diet Jones grinds and mixes himself, consisting of local grains from Racine County. He stressed that there are no animal byproducts in the feed he gives his chickens.

The Difference?

In August 2010, Wright County Egg, a commercial egg producer in Galt, Iowa, voluntarily recalled approximately 380 million eggs it had shipped since May 19, 2010 due to salmonella contamination. The recalled eggs were originally sold to distributors and wholesalers in limited states and in Mexico, and then distributed further throughout the United States under several brand names.

Jones strongly disapproves of unhealthy and inhumane agribusiness “farming” in which thousands of chickens are confined three, four, or even five to a cage where they cannot even flap their wings or get fresh air and sunlight. The chickens in such facilities are fed commercial poultry feed, which can contain animal byproducts, he said. Jones suspects the guilty contaminant may have been in the animal byproduct of the Iowa feed. It’s also common for commercially produced poultry to get pumped full of medications like antibiotics.

In contrast, Jones said his animals are kept healthy and don’t need medications. Since the Iowa egg recall, he’s noticed a big increase in the number of questions customers ask regarding his farming practices, and more people have requested to tour his farm.

Genuine Care for
the Animals

Jones’ day starts and ends with his chickens, which he calls “wonderful animals.” His average workday spans 16 hours. “My day ends when the chicken’s day ends,” Jones said.

His interest in poultry farming goes back to his childhood when he worked on Howard Swan’s farm in Racine County. Swan’s Pumpkin Farm, now known for its pumpkin patch and pre-Halloween festivities, was once a poultry farm, Jones said. He often barters with current owner Ken Swan for farm equipment.

“I’m using equipment now that I used when I was a little boy,” Jones said.

The buildings and equipment on Jones’ eight-acre farm are the result of strenuous recycling, Jones said, and within the last five years he has nearly completed abodes for 700 egg chickens and 500 broiler chickens. He plans to expand to 2,000 chickens.

Jones is in his fifth year at the South Shore Farmers Market, and also sells eggs and meat at the South Milwaukee Farmers Market. When the farmers market season ends, he runs a popular egg route reminiscent of the pre-1960s door-to-door egg farmers and milkmen. The route extends from Racine County north to Bay View. Jones delivers eggs and frozen chickens to his customers’ doorsteps. Customers leave coolers out the night before with the payment. He said the prices are the same as market rates, plus 25 cents for delivery. “No one has ever cheated us,” Jones said.

Jones Family Farm / 4733 80th St. / Franksville, WI  53126 / (262) 878-4876

More photos by Jennifer Janviere of Jones’ chickens here.

St. Marys Challenger

The big gray hull looms up from the narrow channel of the Kinnickinnic River, dwarfing the drawbridge and the trees on the north bank.

What is this ship doing here, nosed up against the KK bridge, docked just a few feet from the road? How did it manage to squeeze its way up the tiniest of Milwaukee’s rivers? How will it ever get back out?

The St. Marys Challenger, under the direction of Captain Al Tielke, delivers powdered cement to the St. Marys Cement Company distribution silo located on the south bank of the Kinnickinnic River, just east of Kinnickinnic Avenue. Cement is then picked up by trucks and delivered to construction sites throughout the region.

This reliable workhorse has performed similar duty for a number of cement companies since the 1960s, but, believe it or not, the vessel itself has plied the waters for over a century, outlasting all others to earn it the title of the oldest lake boat operating on the Great Lakes.

Big Little Boat

At 551 feet long with a capacity of 10,250 tons, the St. Marys Challenger is fairly small by Great Lakes freighter standards. For comparison’s sake, the Stewart J. Cort, which winters in the Milwaukee harbor, is 1,000 feet long and has a capacity of 58,000 tons.

Built in 1906 and put into service as the William P. Snyder, the steam-powered Challenger hauled iron ore on the Great Lakes for about 50 years. By the mid-1960s, the ship appeared to be headed to the scrap yard due to its small size relative to the newer freighters.

However, it was purchased by the Medusa Portland Cement Company in Charlevoix, Mich. and refitted to transport powdered cement. Self-unloading equipment including air slides, conveyors, and bucket elevators comprise an enclosed system for moving the bulk cement from the ship’s holds to onshore storage silos.

According to Chris Winters, author of Centennial: Steaming through the American Century, the shorter and narrower Challenger, just 56 feet abeam, was ideal for Medusa’s business plan. The smaller size allowed shipping access far up small, narrow channels like the Kinnickinnic River. This was desirable because the cost of riverside property for unloading and distribution facilities is much lower than the huge harbor docks and piers the larger carriers require. The Challenger just clears the old iron pivot bridge near the mouth of the KK—by only three feet on each side.

Currently, the lake boat delivers cement from Charlevoix, Mich. to Chicago, Milwaukee, Manitowoc, and Ferrysburg, Mich. When asked which of the ports was hardest to maneuver, Captain Tielke said, “They’re all bad. But Manitowoc is the worst.”

Best Job Ever

When leaving the cement silo dock, the Challenger uses its bow thrusters to push backwards down the KK until it can turn around in the larger harbor. Winters refers to Great Lakes freighters as “world-class ships which are the most efficient for bulk cargo in these complicated waters. Captains of these large boats have to maneuver narrow locks and dredged canals. If you can handle a ship here, you can handle one anywhere. Ship handling on the Great Lakes is a remarkable thing because of the difficult access.”

Tielke, current skipper of the Challenger, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio where he worked in a bank after graduating high school in 1969. A friend whose uncle was first mate on a lake freighter asked Tielke why he was working in a bank when he could be onboard a freighter. His friend then helped him land a job as deckhand on the Harry Colby, transporting iron ore and coal.

Tielke loved the work, and progressed from deckhand to able-bodied seaman to wheelman, then third mate, and eventually earned his Master Mariners License. He became a ship’s captain in 1988 working for the Interlake Steamship Company. In the years since, he has captained many of the large cargo vessels in the Great Lakes including the Stewart J. Cort.

Tielke is in his second year commanding the Challenger. “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “I work with the same people, and go to the same docks.”

Hauling Tons of Cement

A standard contract has crew members working 60 days on the boat with 30 days off. However, Captain Tielke said their actual schedule varies because the Challenger’s cement season is only about five months long, from mid-May to the beginning of December. Crew members said it can be hard being away from family for such a long stretch, though they like the outdoor work and being on the water.

Oldest working ship on Great Lakes harbors in Kinnickinnic River

Tielke and Sam the cook walk several miles of laps around the deck every day to get some exercise and to “break in” Tielke’s recent knee replacement. Off-duty crew also play cards and watch DVDs to pass the time.

St. Marys Conquest

You might also see the St. Marys Conquest docked on the KK River. The Conquest is a 437-foot-long barge which can transport 8,500 tons of cement and is mated with the tugboat Prentiss Brown.

A barge is more economical for a company to operate than a self-contained ship because it requires a crew of only 12 people. “However, barges don’t handle bad weather as well as self-contained ships,” according to Chris Winters. Tugboats that push barges also offer limited amenities. “It is hard to keep crews on a barge. The tugboats are so small there is not a full-time cook. Crew members take turns cooking and there is just not enough time off.”

Centenarian Vessel with a Future

In 2005, nine months short of its 100th anniversary, the Challenger narrowly escaped having its stern cut off when its owners planned to convert it into a barge.

But when Hurricane Katrina caused the price of diesel fuel to skyrocket, the Challenger—whose steam engine is powered with inexpensive heavy fuel oil and not diesel—was spared.

In 2009, the Challenger passed its five-year inspection and is estimated to be operable for about another 15 years. So, for the foreseeable future, the Challenger will continue to sail the waters of Lake Michigan delivering cement for our roads and buildings.

A Portrait of the St. Marys Challenger

Centennial: Steaming through the American Century, by author and photographer Chris Winters, is a coffee-table book celebration of the career of the St. Marys Challenger, the Great Lakes’ oldest operating steamship.

Winters, Discovery World’s staff photographer, grew up in Wauwatosa and was fascinated from a young age by the ships and maritime history of the Great Lakes. After photographing other big freighters, Winters was captivated by the Challenger in 2003, realizing that it might reach the milestone of 100 years of consecutive service in 2006.

He spent much of the next five years researching, photographing, riding on, and following the Challenger. The resulting book contains over 300 archival and original photos, documenting the ship’s story and mirroring the history of Great Lakes shipping during the 20th century.

Centennial is available at Discovery World and at runninglightpress.com.

Must love dogs

Mary Deikalo, along with friends Ruth Wisinski, Karen Stivason, Marilyn Halser, and Donna McMaster, are familiar faces at the South Shore Farmers Market, although they do not sell produce.

Anyone who has taken their canine pal along to the market will probably recognize them. The quintet generously hands out treats and provides water to all dogs who stop by to bark hello.

You can see the joy in their faces when the dogs stop by.

“I once had a dog named Molly. She was such a sweet dog, a Cairn Terrier,” Deikalo said.

Deikalo worked at, and later owned, Carol’s Styling Salon, 3405 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., and often turned beauty appointments into parties, providing cookies and coffee to her clients. Big band and polka recordings played while she styled their hair.

Knee trouble later prevented her from working at the salon—and from caring for another dog. Having the warm sociable personality that she does, Deikalo regularly attended the South Shore Farmers Market, and, after noticing how many people brought their dogs along for the outing, she started bringing treats.

“Because of my knee trouble, I could no longer take care of a dog, but I love them, so I get all my love from the dogs at the park,” Deikalo said.

Wisinski, Stivason, Halser, and McMaster eventually joined her, and the ladies are now in their fifth year at the market. A friend at Excel Printing made them a sign, and they keep a guestbook of the dogs that visit. Number of dogs served so far: over 100.

“The owners are all so nice to talk to,” Deikalo said, “the market is such a nice community event.”

Shroomin’ it up

At the end of a dusty road in Burlington, Wis., lined with wood-slat homes and people seated on wraparound porches enjoying the summer breeze, sits a country store reminiscent of days gone by. In the lush fields and farm structures behind the store grow the products that end up on its shelves-tomatoes for homemade pasta sauces, corn for corn relish, and garlic and beans to be pickled and canned.

And mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms, to be sold fresh at the store and at various farmers markets, as well as for the farm’s specialty products including pickled mushrooms, Portabella chili, and Portabella salsa.

Eric Rose, owner of River Valley Ranch & Kitchens, said his father started growing mushrooms in 1972. His family is originally from Chicago, and Rose said they owned several different restaurants throughout the Windy City in the 1950s and 1960s.

When Rose was in his early 20s, after “doing the Woodstock thing and listening to rock and roll,” he helped his father when he was shorthanded and became intrigued by the growing process. River Valley Ranch & Kitchens now grows five varieties of mushrooms and assorted produce on 37 acres. Rose sells to farmers markets in the Milwaukee area and throughout Chicago, and also sells produce and canned products at the store and to restaurants. River Valley Ranch & Kitchens is in its fifth year at the South Shore Farmers Market.

Rose said he has noticed an increased awareness in recent years on the part of consumers about where their food comes from, plus an increasing focus on healthful food. This has led to an uptick in business, Rose said, even after business dipped when varieties of mushrooms became more readily available in grocery stores.

“It’s not easy to grow good food,” Rose said. River Valley Ranch & Kitchens uses no pesticides or chemicals on its mushrooms or produce.

While mushrooms have nutritional value, Rose said their flavor is more the selling point. Some people enjoy the meaty taste of a Portabella mushroom on its own, as a vegetarian substitute for a hamburger patty, while others use mushrooms to enhance a meal.

Portabella, Crimini (known more commonly as Baby Bella), White Button, Oyster, and Shiitake mushrooms are grown year-round in five cool, dim growing houses, each with a crop in a different stage of development. Rose said rotating the crop yields 8,000 pounds of mushrooms per week.

Nestled in eight-inch-deep wood trays, Portabella and Crimini mushrooms pop their domed tops through a combination of 80-percent compost and a mixture of peat moss and limestone. Portabella and Crimini mushrooms are actually the same mushroom, Rose said, just harvested at different stages.

Growing methods vary slightly for the other varieties. Rose displayed a sawdust block approximately the size of a cinderblock. Shiitake mushrooms of assorted sizes sprouted in all directions from the block.

On separate shelves, clear plastic bags slightly larger than grocery store bags were stuffed with pasteurized straw and calcium. This mixture provided the developing environment for Oyster mushrooms, which emerged through slits in the clear plastic.

For all varieties, the growing cycle is quick, Rose said, with Oyster mushrooms maturing within five days. Others mature in about one week.

Rose said some challenges with mushroom cultivation are mushroom flies and fungal viruses that attack the mushrooms, reducing the pounds yielded. He’s nearly completed three years’ worth of upgrades to improve sanitation and efficiency, and recently purchased a new ventilation system.

As for a favorite mushroom, Rose joked that it’s “whatever one we have too many of.”

More Than Mushrooms

Outside of the mushroom growing houses, fields of asparagus, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and squash blend into the rural landscape. Rose said the produce is both to sell fresh and for use in the products they offer at the store and the farmers markets. Most of the pickled vegetables, sauces, and salsas they sell are their own recipes. Rose said they also have worked with chefs, including Rick Bayless of Chicago’s Frontera Grill, to create recipes.

Much of the weeding is done by hand. Rose said the number of employees fluctuates, but is usually “30-something” among the farm, the store, and the kitchen. As for the produce, Rose said he doesn’t do his own seed starts, but orders plants from local businesses.

Rose paused to pluck a Japanese beetle from an asparagus fern. “These are menacing. There’s not many natural methods to get rid of them.” Rose crushed the dime-sized pest and flicked it into the distance, and said they’ve been a problem for farmers this season, and will lead to a lower plant yield next year.

Rose, like most small farmers, must constantly be creative with ways to protect his livelihood given the challenges of Wisconsin’s drastic climate swings. While checking the rows of Anaheim chili peppers, basil, and eggplant, Rose said they’ve expanded crops this season to make up for losses last year due to the cool weather. Warm temperatures this summer have led to a more bountiful harvest.

River Valley Ranch & Kitchens also offers mushroom kits for sale for those interested in growing their own mushrooms.

Despite the challenges of producing quality pesticide-free food, and the long hours involved with farming, Rose said it’s rewarding to hear feedback from customers who notice a difference in the quality of sustainable agriculture versus commercially grown food. He hopes the interest in good food stays strong.

More info: rivervalleykitchens.com.

Dick Knepper—from four wheels to two

Dick Knepper pedals through Bay View, noticing the make, model, and condition of cars whizzing past his bicycle. Once Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Fords were popular, but times have changed. These days he notices the influx of Volvos, BMWs, and Subarus. His observations aren’t surprising, given Knepper’s background as a gas station and car repair shop owner. Over the almost six decades he’s been working with and watching Bay View’s cars, Knepper has seen them and the neighborhood get more prestigious.

“Big time, what I’ve noticed is the clientele in the Bay View area. When I went into business, it was a working man’s, working class area. Since Bay View was ‘found out’ since they built the bridge, it was a big turning point in Bay View,” he said, referring to the Hoan Bridge, which opened for traffic in 1977.

Knepper sports a long gray ponytail which defies his age, 81, as does a substantial tan from his “snowbird” months in Florida and frequent bicycling. He launched the Bay View Bicycle Club in 1989 and is proud that “I used to bike when it wasn’t popular.”

Early Years

Knepper was born at 39th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue, ninth of 11 children. Through the years, he’s lived in several homes in or near Bay View, including one he and two brothers built for their parents. Knepper lived there with his parents until his marriage in 1957, when the young couple moved to Third and Oklahoma.

As a teenager, Knepper attended South Division High School for three years, then joined the U.S. Army and served three years as a mechanic, attaining the rank of sergeant. He used GI Bill money to attend night school, studying to become a mechanical engineer at what was then a UW extension, now UWM. But in 1952, he and his brother Herb started renting a Shell gas station at 2892 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. In 1959, they bought it.

The new business owners had lots of competition. The Kneppers’ Shell filling station occupied the northeast corner of Estes Street and Kinnickinnic Avenue (the present-day site of the car repair business that bears the brothers’ names), but there was a Mobil kitty-corner from them on the southwest corner (the present-day location of the Milwaukee Community Acupuncture). A few blocks to the south, gas stations occupied three of the four corners at the intersection of Kinnickinnic and Oklahoma. And up the block, there was a station on KK at Fulton and also at Russell.

“There was so much competition, I really don’t know how we did it,” Knepper said.

The brothers started selling gas at 21 cents per gallon, almost always paid in cash. High-school-aged boys filled the tank, checked the oil, and washed the windows for each customer.

Knepper and his wife Nancy had three girls and four boys, who sometimes helped out with window washing, checking fluids, and even tire rotation. Knepper enjoyed taking them bicycling on his Raleigh, an English bike he selected for its light weight. He remembers getting his bike serviced at the now-defunct Bayview Schwinn Cyclery (then actually in St. Francis across from the former Majdecki’s Inn on St. Francis Avenue before the shop moved to 43rd and Loomis Road).

Over the years, Dick and Herb had to borrow money to stay afloat and suffered through the 1970s energy crisis—plus conflict with Kneisler’s White House owners when they challenged his acquisition of a triangular city property between his business and the White House. Knepper and his wife divorced in 1975.

Knepper Brothers prevailed as other stations faded away. “We outlasted everybody in the whole area,” Knepper said. He attributes some of his success to honesty, and said his secret to being a good business owner is to “admit when you’re wrong.”

The brothers eliminated their closest competitor by purchasing the location in the late 1990s. But Knepper Brothers was itself to change its identity as a filling station. Federal Superfund money helped remove leaky tanks, and in 1998 Knepper Brothers became solely devoted to car repair. That same year, Knepper’s sons Andy and Rick took over the business. A few years later, Rick moved up north and Andy became sole proprietor.

Dick Knepper remains a regular at his son’s shop for a morning coffee klatch in the small lobby, which features historic photos of the old station. Relatives and friends, some from the South Shore Yacht Club, stop by to chat.

Passion for Cycling

In 1989 Knepper realized he wanted to meet some of the bike riders passing him on roads and paths. He concocted the idea of a bicycle club and hung flyers to announce a meeting.

Twenty-five people turned up at the first meeting. They formed the nonprofit Bay View Bicycle Club, which today is going strong with about 100 members and organizes rides each weekend of the season.

Knepper has left a legacy in the club.

“He is definitely leaving his mark on the bicycling community,” said current president Michael Dix. “I think the club still reflects his personality. It’s very down to earth. As a club we’re really just interested at getting out and riding.”

Knepper still rides, mostly solo, and chooses a route based on whim and wind. Dix points out that “Dick provides an example to others that helps them to continue to ride as they get older.”

In 1999 Knepper made local news when he rode his bicycle 1,600 miles to Florida with his then-18-year-old granddaughter, Liz Wyma, to celebrate his 70th birthday. Knepper said the ride challenged her stamina more than his.

Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The search for information led his romantic partner Donna Pogliano to coauthor the 2002 book A Primer on Prostate Cancer: The Empowered Patient’s Guide. Today, Knepper is fully recovered from cancer and in good health, always ready for another ride.

Bay View Bicycle Club
The Bay View Bicycle Club is a group of about 100 riders who organize rides around southeastern Wisconsin each weekend from April through October. The rides are focused on enjoyment rather than racing and might involve a stop for ice cream. Wheel & Sprocket provides support. Members serve as marshals during UPAF’s Ride for the Arts and donate to worthy causes. The club’s fundraiser, the Lake Country Classic, is held in July. Annual dues are $25 for an individual and $40 for a household. More info: bayviewbikeclub.org.

Taking care of his sweet girls

Sunlight shone through jars of pure honey, highlighting the golden clarity of Zivojin “Jim” Cvejin’s untouched product.

Beekeeper Cvejin, 80, has sold his unprocessed honey and other products—honey mustard, honey candies, beeswax bars, bee pollen, and honey glycerin soap—at the South Shore Farmers Market since it started.

He’s earned quite a following among market regulars, who often stop by his stand seeking one of his honey varieties including Raspberry, Locust, Basswood, or Wildflower.

A native of the former Yugoslavia, Cvejin worked as a mechanical engineer until his retirement from Ladish Co. in Cudahy 14 years ago. Scientifically inclined, after retirement he quickly became bored with “being a couch potato.” Through a mutual friend he met Dr. Marla Spivak, professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota. Cvejin said he then became intrigued by the art and science of beekeeping. Voracious in his curiosity, he took a one-week beekeeping course, but his thirst for knowledge continued. He took another short course the following year, and later studied beekeeping under Dr. Marion Ellis of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cvejin earned his Master Beekeeper certificate in 2002.

His passion for beekeeping is obvious, and he takes his charge to educate others about bees seriously.

He goes into great detail about bee colonies, which are like families and have structure and specialized roles for the queen, worker bees, and drones. Guard bees have a keen sense of smell, Cvejin said, and can detect intruders from other colonies.

He’ll also tell you that queens are made, not born, a product of a specialized diet of royal jelly, glandular secretions from worker bee heads more nutritious than the pollen consumed by adults. “Queens don’t eat—they’re fed,” Cvejin said. And there’s a reason: she’s busy. In 24 hours, Cvejin said, a queen bee can lay twice her body weight in eggs.

A Man of Bees

A soft-spoken, gentle man who doesn’t rush, Cvejin cares about the welfare of his “sweet girls,” as he calls his all-female worker bees.

Cvejin has hives in various locations around the Milwaukee area, including New Berlin and Caledonia. He averages about two hives per location, and has not kept more than four to five. He said there are no permits required in the municipalities where he keeps the hives, but he just needs a permit to sell.

He’s tried Australian, Russian, New World, New Zealand, and Minnesotan bees, but prefers Italian, which are productive and docile.

Cvejin said his honey varies throughout the season when the hives are pulled after certain flowerings, with Locust usually being the first to blossom. Several market customers had asked for Buckwheat honey, which Cvejin said would be ready in August. He said he sells through December, then begins the season again “when the dandelions first harvest.” Honey production varies, depending on the type of bee, where they are, and the weather.

He’s against migratory beekeeping, where bees are taken from Florida to Georgia to California on a flatbed truck and forced to pollinate crops beyond their natural seasonal rhythms. “That’s not beekeeping. That’s milking,” he said. “That’s not okay.”

Cvejin also said heating and filtering commercial honey destroys all the good ingredients that occur in it naturally, like enzymes and vitamins. “All is destroyed with heating, filtering…All to make honey sit in jars on shelves for years.”

Many customers quizzically examined his jars of bee pollen granules, which Cvejin said can be beneficial for ailments such as allergies. He cited customers who special-order his honey and bee pollen for its healing properties and recommends consuming one teaspoon of his honey a day for its health properties.

He helped the sisters at the Eco-Justice Center in Racine set up a colony, but told them to be patient because the initial work of making wax is toughest for the bees. “You’ve got to be patient,” he told the sisters. “You’ve got to give it time. Time to build a house first.”

If people want to raise their own bees, Cvejin recommends that beginners start with two colonies, as it’s common for the first to be lost. He works with other beekeepers and helps troubleshoot. “Nobody knows everything,” Cvejin said. “We all learn from each other, if we’re smart enough.”]

Michael Timm contributed to this report.

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