YOUNGSTOWN – A new mobile steam plant that will provide utility services to much of downtown is on its way to Youngstown and will be operating shortly.

Andy Resnick, the city’s spokesman, said Saturday: “As a result of pressure from the city, we can confirm that the new boiler is on its way to Youngstown right now and a crew is going to work on installing it through the weekend. It should be up and running by Tuesday at the latest.”

The mobile plant is coming from Virginia and left Saturday for Youngstown, Resnick said.

SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC ‘s 27 downtown customers have been without heating, cooling and hot water service since a mobile steam plant was repossessed last Tuesday by Wabash Power Equipment Co. The mobile plant provided the utility services.

Wabash of Wheeling, Illinois, had been renting a mobile steam plant to SOBE for nearly six years. But the company repossessed it Tuesday because SOBE owes $383,214 in back payments.

Since Reg Martin was appointed receiver of SOBE on Sept. 26, he and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which recommended he be named to run the company, have been working with the city to find an option to provide utility services to the customers.

Among SOBE’s customers are city hall, the police station, the main fire station as well as numerous downtown businesses and two buildings with 90 residents.

City officials on Thursday threatened legal action against Martin and the PUCO if a resolution wasn’t quickly found.

Sources told The Vindicator on Thursday that it was believed a mobile steam plant was ordered that day and would be delivered, installed and online in a few days. Sources said Saturday that a deal was worked out late Friday.

Youngstown State University was asked to provide utility services to SOBE customers, but efforts to do so failed because of substantial leaks found Wednesday in the old piping system.

The only short-term option was to rent another mobile steam plant.

Kenneth R. Goldberg, an attorney representing Martin, filed a stay of execution request with Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio to stop the repossession of the mobile plant by Wabash as it was happening. Magistrate Nicole Butler on Wednesday denied the motion.

SOBE breached a lease agreement with Wabash for the steam plant at its Youngstown facility, 205 North Ave. SOBE signed a lease in November 2019 to use Wabash’s steam plant at $19,500 a month.

A federal judge ruled Jan. 29 in favor of Wabash’s motion for default judgment of $383,214 when SOBE never responded to the case. Wabash then filed May 23 in Mahoning common pleas to repossess and remove the equipment after SOBE refused many demands for the property, according to court documents.

The repossession was delayed a few times since Donofrio granted a default judgment Aug. 21 against SOBE, which didn’t respond to the lawsuit.

The city on Sept. 9 filed a motion to intervene “to ensure the health, safety and welfare of residents and businesses in downtown Youngstown,” and sought a stay of the judgment of at least 30 days. A settlement was reached Sept. 16 for the city to pay $20,000 to Wabash to keep the mobile steam plant at SOBE until the end of September.

In a Thursday letter to Goldberg and an assistant Ohio attorney general, city Law Director Lori Shells Simmons wrote: She said, “The receiver is now by statute obligated to determine how SOBE Thermal ‘shall furnish necessary and adequate services.’ The city of Youngstown hereby respectively requests that the receiver and PUCO exercise any and all statutory or equitable power to resume SOBE Thermal’s operations as required by law. As a customer of SOBE Thermal, the city of Youngstown does not have standing to take over operations, but does have standing to pursue any and all legal avenues necessary to compel SOBE Thermal, by way of its receiver, to resume operations. Moreover, the city administration is ready, willing and able to continue discussing possible solutions that are consistent with Ohio law and the city of Youngstown’s charter.”

Martin also served as receiver from 2017 to 2019 when the downtown utility, then operated by Youngstown Thermal LLC, financially failed.

Martin, of the Columbus area, was named to run Youngstown Thermal after the PUCO was informed by the company’s CEO that the business was financially failing, which could have caused an energy crisis downtown.

YSU used to be the largest customer for utility services from Youngstown Thermal until it left in 2016.

By 2017, Youngstown Thermal, which had numerous problems for years, could no longer ensure adequate service to its customers and was in danger of insolvency when the PUCO stepped in and appointed Martin.

When Martin was Youngstown Thermal’s receiver, the PUCO granted him permission for an additional surcharge on customers.

Martin was the receiver for two years before he worked out a deal with SOBE, based in Dublin, Ohio, to manage the facility in 2019. SOBE purchased the assets for $250,000 in November 2021.

But SOBE has since experienced a number of financial problems and can no longer effectively provide utility services to its customers.

This is the oldest district heating and cooling system in the country, having begun operations in 1895. It was designed to generate and distribute steam to heat downtown businesses using coal as its main source of fuel.