![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Ed-Moore.png\")
In response to this crisis, the City has introduced a debt forgiveness program. In order to qualify for the program applicants must live in Toledo, must have past due balances of $200 or more, have an income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or 300 percent if disabled and then stay current on all new charges while enrolled in the program.<\/p>\n
The goal for enrollment, says Moore, \u201cis to help everyone we can, if we help one or 10,000 \u2013 the numbers have shown that this is something needed in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore is all too familiar with the difficulties such low-income households face. \u201cI grew up in a house without water,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is personal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore explains that a good part of his childhood was spent living with his grandmother. \u201cSometimes we didn\u2019t have water, sometimes we didn\u2019t have electricity, sometimes we didn\u2019t have gas,\u201d he says. \u201cThose are some of the decisions she had to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore became Toledo\u2019s Director of Public Utilities in April of 2014. He had previously served as commissioner of Sewer & Drainage, commissioner of Streets, Bridges and Harbor and commissioner of Engineering Services.<\/p>\n
A lifelong Toledoan and veteran of the U.S. Navy, Moore has degrees in Managerial Accounting, Engineering Technology and an Executive Master\u2019s Degree in Business Administration.<\/p>\n
Moore represents the City on the Toledo Community Water Council, an organization that started meeting in January 2020 to help devise and develop programs related to water accessibility and affordability. The Council helped to create methods to forgive debts related to water charges, storm water charges and sewer charges incurred prior to October 2021. Charges incurred after October 1 will be eligible for an installment payment plan but not debt forgiveness.<\/p>\n
There are two parts of the program, explains Moore. For those with debts, incurred before October, of more than $200 and less than $1,000, enrollees must make 12 timely payments over the next year and the prior debt will be forgiven in its entirety.<\/p>\n
For those whose debts are over $1,000, enrollees must make timely payments over the next two years and the debt will be forgiven \u2013 in its entirety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at a lot of different programs and some offered partial relief,\u201d said Moore, clearly proud of the fact that the City is offering such complete assistance to those in need.<\/p>\n
There is a good deal more on Moore\u2019s plate than just water debts, however. The American Rescue Plan dollars that the City of Toledo will receive \u2013 in excess of $180 million \u2013 will enable the city to replace the lead pipes that deliver that water, in both public and private spaces. The ongoing issue of lead pipes, says Moore, is not separate from the issue of poverty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a natural connectivity,\u201d he says, because the oldest parts of the city \u2013 with combined sewer water tied to storm water \u2013 are also those sections with the highest poverty rates. \u201cThey qualify for poverty rates [and water debt forgiveness] and they qualify for lead replacement service.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, says Moore, of the lead pipe issue, \u201cwe don\u2019t have a lead problem.\u201d The city\u2019s treatment of such pipes, the program to coat the interiors of lead pipes, has \u201cmade our water safe,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we want to get ahead of [the issue] and we test every three years.\u201d Nevertheless, the monies from the American Rescue Plan to replace such pipes entirely is a fortuitous occurrence.<\/p>\n
In fact, in spite of the numerous water issues that have sprung up during Moore\u2019s watch, he cannot help to remain optimistic about the condition of the area\u2019s water and the future for Toledoans who live on the shores of the Great Lakes, the world\u2019s largest fresh-water reserve by total area and the second largest by total volume \u2013 more than one fifth of the world\u2019s surface fresh water.<\/p>\n
During his years at the helm of the Department of Public Utilities, $500 million has been spent on improving the condition of the water treatment plant, the ozone system is in very good shape and multiple barriers have been put in place to prevent another algae bloom.<\/p>\n
For the person in charge of water, however, there will always be challenges. The sewer plant needs improvement, Moore notes. The Great Lakes are always vulnerable to dangerous invasive species. Such vulnerabilities and improvements mean that inevitably rates will increase for Toledoans.<\/p>\n
There will always be something to keep Ed Moore busy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Fletcher Word Sojourner\u2019s Truth Editor Edward A. Moore was appointed director of the City of Toledo Department of Public Utilities in 2014 by then-Mayor Mike Bell. It\u2019s a term of service that has seen Moore and the City navigate a path through one water crisis after another \u2013 toxic algae blooms that rendered the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[23],"class_list":["post-3267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover_story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3271,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions\/3271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3267"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=3267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}