One would be hard pressed to find a better example of lax attention and oversight than the ongoing debacle of SOBE Thermal Energy and its failure to provide adequate heat to customers in downtown Youngstown over the past several months.

The current situation represents a failure of both private- and public-sector leadership. SOBE arguably was premature in removing its existing system before getting community buy-in for its plans. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio should have seen the warning signs and acted before this winter’s cold exacerbated the situation, and the city, under former Mayor Jamael Tito Brown’s administration, waited too long to act.   

SOBE supplies heat to more than two dozen customers downtown, including city hall. Many of those customers have had to close over the past several weeks because of the lack of heat, at a time when Mahoning Valley temperatures fell below freezing. Two mobile boilers brought onsite failed in February. Even city hall closed.

The latest development (as of press time) in the years-long saga of the former Youngstown Thermal was the resignation of the steam heat provider’s receiver, Reg Martin of Columbus, following a motion filed Feb. 11 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by PUCO for his removal. The court filing also requested the appointment of John C. Collins, a Youngstown native and Akron-based attorney, as Martin’s replacement.  

This disaster, born out of incompetence at many levels, has been building for about a decade and even attracted the attention of the New York Times. Youngstown Thermal, which had been headed toward insolvency, went into receivership in 2017 and SOBE bought the system in 2021.  

SOBE had planned to convert the plant to one that used recycled tire chips for fuel under a permit issued by Ohio environmental regulators. That plan was scrapped when city residents and leaders opposed the plan over environmental concerns – but not before SOBE had removed much of the old boiler infrastructure at the site. An 800-horsepower boiler at the company’s North Avenue plant was repossessed after SOBE failed to make its scheduled lease payments, and SOBE has depended on the smaller boilers since then.

Unfortunately, the main ones paying the price are the people who work and live downtown.