YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A third boiler with 800-horsepower capacity was scheduled to arrive at SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC’s site sometime this morning and officials hoped it could be operational as early as the end of the day.
However, the truck transporting the new unit from Virginia experienced a flat tire and as of 2:30 p.m. was still in Pennsylvania awaiting repairs, according to Reg Martin, the court-appointed receiver for the steam heat company.
It’s among the latest setbacks for SOBE, as many of the company’s downtown customers have lost patience with the district utility amid a dangerous deep freeze that has gripped the Mahoning Valley. These customers cite consistent interruptions in service and inadequate steam pressure that is necessary to heat buildings in the central business district.
“Smarts [Students Motivated by the Arts] has been here nine years, and this year has been exceedingly difficult for us,” said Becky Keck, president and founder of the organization. Keck said that over the past 12 weeks, the temperature in her offices and workspace at the ground floor of the Ohio One Building has never exceeded 64 degrees.
Plunging Temperatures – and Confidence
Friday morning, Keck said the temperature at Smarts stood at just 48 degrees. “With recent low temperatures this week, we’ve had to consolidate all of our employees into one office space with electric space heaters,” she said. This, combined with additional information technology extensions, has added to costs. “Not enough steam is getting into the Ohio One Building. This is the coldest it’s ever been inside our facility without the ability to heat it up.”
The temperature at approximately 6 a.m. Friday plummeted to 17 degrees below zero, according to weather data. By 10:30 a.m., the temperature stood at 1 degree, with highs not expected above 15 degrees. Subzero temperatures are also expected for Saturday.
Keck said the problem has been persistent for years and has been worse since fall, when SOBE entered receivership. She said her program provides arts education classes for students from across the region, so adequate heating service is vital.
SOBE representatives have said the third boiler will add sufficient pressure to the system once it is operational. In the meantime, the company has struggled to maintain proper heating service to 28 buildings downtown, its customers say.
The district heating company was placed into receivership in late September after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio determined that it could no longer deliver mandated services to its customers.
An 800-horsepower mobile boiler was disconnected and repossessed by its owners Sept. 30 after SOBE management failed to make payments on its lease obligations, leaving customers without heat or hot water.
A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court appointed Martin as SOBE’s receiver Sept. 26. A 650-horsepower boiler was secured to serve customers on the district heating line during the first week of October. Martin, however, acknowledged that the boiler’s capacity was inadequate to serve customers during the winter months. In December, a second 200-horsepower boiler was added, as the team worked to acquire another 800-horsepower boiler for the system.
However, should the third boiler prove insufficient, Smarts would consider postponing programs that are expected to start next week, Keck said. “We have never done that in 29 years, but it is too cold in our classrooms and restrooms for children to safely learn,” she said. Postponement, she continued, could impact operations such as funding, teacher contracts, communications, staffing and providing a safe environment for staff and students.
Law Director Adam Buente has urged the receiver’s office and the PUCO to take immediate steps to resolve the issue. In a letter addressed to Kenneth Goldberg, attorney for the receiver, and Monica Waller, attorney for the PUCO on Friday, Buente said the city has “begged and pleaded with the receiver and the Attorney General’s Office to do more in this urgent situation, including asking your respective offices to do whatever it takes to ensure redundancy in the system. That has not happened. The predictable consequence has occurred.”
Buente’s letter says that City Hall is going on its fourth day “without any meaningful heat from SOBE.” On Jan. 29, a ruptured waterline caused SOBE to shut down its boilers, disrupting heating service to its 28 customers downtown.
“City Hall has not had even 10% of the necessary steam pressure since,” Buente said. The temperature at his office on the building’s fourth floor Friday was gauged at 44 degrees, while others on the third floor stood at 38 degrees.
“It goes without saying how dangerous and calamitous this situation could become for all 28 buildings in downtown Youngstown given the extreme cold forecast for the next seven days,” Buente warned.
Buente acknowledged in his letter that SOBE’s failure was not caused by the state or receiver, nor was the extreme cold weather. “But due to the unprecedented urgency of this situation, I am respectfully asking that both of your offices coordinate with immediate haste to resolve this situation as urgently as possible.”
SOBE Operations
John Rambo, general manager at SOBE Thermal’s plant along North Avenue, said the third boiler was shipped Thursday from Virginia and was expected to arrive on site Friday morning. “It could possibly be connected by the end of the day,” he said. However, it’s likely this timeline would be delayed because of the latest development.
SOBE’s crew had already prepared the piping infrastructure and connection valves at the site necessary to accommodate the additional boiler after it hooked up the 200-horsepower boiler in December. “A lot of piping has already been prepared, as we know exactly where it’s going to park,” he explained.
SOBE’s operations have been confounded over the past several days because of the waterline break and an issue with a relay component Friday morning in its 650-horsepower unit. The incident caused the boiler to go offline during frigid temperatures Thursday night, he said, but service was restored and is now building pressure in the system.
Once the larger boiler is installed, it should provide more than enough pressure to provide redundant heating service to downtown customers. “It’s going to meet all the pressure requirements for everyone,” he said.
Rambo said SOBE was previously operating on a single mobile 800-horsepower unit leased through Wabash Power Equipment Co. near Chicago. That was disconnected after SOBE went into receivership, leaving the company with the task of securing a new boiler as quickly as possible. A 650-horsepower unit was secured through Power Mechanical Corp. in Virginia.
Customers Express Doubts
Martin, SOBE’s receiver, said Power Mechanical told him that the 800 horsepower boiler would be available by the end of December. Then the company informed him that delivery would be pushed back to January.
“They got it about two weeks ago, and it had to go through a complete rehab,” he said. “They weren’t able to ship it out until Thursday.”
Martin said a $750,000 gift from Enbridge Gas Ohio related to a settlement with the Realty Tower explosion in May 2024 that SOBE received in December allowed for the purchase of the 200-horsepower and the 800-horsepower boiler. According to the receiver’s second report filed with the court, the gift and 800-horsepower unit puts SOBE “in a much stronger position to provide the Youngstown community uninterrupted steam heat and water service, once installation is completed, during the remaining winter months and beyond.”
Martin said that when he was appointed receiver, SOBE had just $30,000 in its bank account, limiting his ability to secure an 800-horsepower boiler immediately.
“I understand there are difficulties,” Martin said, noting SOBE’s operations have been hampered by waterline breaks and power outages that are beyond the company’s control. In other cases, inadequate heat to customers was found to be caused by problems with the client’s heating system and not SOBE’s service.
Other customers, however, have called into question Martin’s management since he was appointed receiver in September.
“The buildings are not at a workable temperature,” said Barb Ewing, president and CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator, which is a major customer. “He is not providing the services we need, and it’s my belief, frankly, that he needs to be replaced as the receiver.”
Ewing said she has made her sentiments known to the PUCO, and that users of this system have undergone great hardship, especially since the onset of the extreme cold weather. She said she believes Martin has downplayed the severity of the situation.
“This should all have been rectified in October at the latest,” she said.
Ryan Kelly, a principal of Ohio One Group, which owns the Ohio One Building, and a longtime customer of the district heating system, agrees that this situation could have been avoided.
“This was preventable,” he said. “This has been a consistent pattern since the onset of winter.”