An experimental program that often employs ex-convicts to deconstruct abandoned houses in Milwaukee provides valuable apprenticeships to city residents and salvages useful materials but also threatens to cost twice as much as standard mechanical demolition.
Milwaukee officials want to proceed with a plan to salvage fixtures and building materials from foreclosed homes despite concerns that there is no resale market.
Milwaukee officials have drafted an ordinance that would require special inspections of construction projects to prevent accidents like one that left a 15-year-old boy dead after a concrete panel fell off the O’Donnell Park parking garage.
Concerns that Milwaukee could become a “substitute bank for high-risk loans” at least temporarily derailed a proposal to use city money to support a home repair venture.
The owner of a Milwaukee apartment building where multiple porches collapsed last week must get permits to demolish a stairwell and open a second entrance before letting residents return.