An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but Toledo government shuns spending money to maintain essential public infrastructure and passes inconvenience and expense on to its citizens.
Failure to maintain the Collins Park Water Plant resulted in the 2014 interruption of potable water and prompted expensive catchup dollars to update both the Collins Park and Bayview plants. The city did not recognize the failure of an 84-inch sewer culvert under the Bowsher High School football field in 2022 as a precursor to pipe collapses and sink holes along Arlington Avenue this past spring, resulting in raw sewage releases. The bill for emergency repair funding is forthcoming.
Road repair is the leading complaint to Engage Toledo. The income earmarked for Toledo roads: gas taxes, licensing fees, overweight truck fines, federal and state matching grants and what can be spared from the Toledo budget, has been meager. The city averaged only 11.7 lane miles per year of road resurfacing from 2015-2020. The mayor’s refrain is that money would be spent on road repair, if there was only a large source of money…