YOUNGSTOWN — A new rented mobile steam plant at SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC could start providing utility services to much of downtown Youngstown as early as today.

With SOBE’s former mobile steam plant repossessed Sept. 30, the 27 downtown buildings that received heating, cooling and hot water services from the company, in the hands of a court-appointed receiver since Sept. 26, have been without those utilities.

An agreement was reached late Friday between Reg Martin, the court-appointed receiver, with Power Mechanical of Newport News, Virginia, to rent a trailer-mounted boiler to serve SOBE customers, said Kenneth R. Goldberg, Martin’s court-appointed legal counsel.

Martin “found two possible places to get a boiler,” Goldberg said Monday. “The one down in Virginia was the one that could get it the quickest.”

The mobile steam plant was shipped Saturday to Youngstown, and arrived Sunday with assembly starting then, Goldberg said. It was inspected Monday by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and could be operational as soon as today, Goldberg said.

“I expect it any day now,” Goldberg said. “Reg has been working around the clock to get this done.”

The steam plant that Martin is leasing is a 650-horsepowered boiler.

“This is a smaller boiler than what is needed for the winter months,” Goldberg said. “We’ll use it for the next month or two, but we’ll need to trade it up to a larger boiler – from 650 to 800, which is what the old boiler was. This is what we could get quickly and the goal was to get it up and running as soon as possible.”

Goldberg added: “SOBE had an 800 (horsepower) boiler. That is the long-term answer until Reg can find a viable company to take it over as soon as possible. I suspect that’s going to take some time. We’re working to get the ship righted.”

SOBE’s 27 downtown customers include city hall, the police station, the downtown fire station and two buildings with 90 residents.

A Saturday text at 11:11 a.m. from Tyler Villeneuve, Power Mechanical’s rental billing and logistics coordinator, to Jason Small, a city senior assistant law director spearheading Youngstown’s efforts on this issue, stated: “We have received all of the permits and our driver is preparing to leave. He will call the site contact promptly.”

Matt Schilling, spokesman for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which sought Martin’s appointment as receiver, said Monday that the rented steam plant was onsite at SOBE’s location, 205 North Ave. He didn’t have any other details.

Power Mechanical’s website states it is “one of the leading suppliers of boiler equipment” in the country with “one of the largest inventories of state-of-the-art stock industrial boilers.”

Andy Resnick, the city’s spokesman, said Monday that city officials didn’t have anything to add to a Saturday statement.

That statement from Resnick read: “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.”

In response, Goldberg said, “Reg has a fiduciary responsibility to do what is best for SOBE’s customers and that is the pressure. He wanted to get it done effectively and efficiently and that is the pressure he felt. A week after he was named receiver, he got a boiler. That’s pretty quick. He worked day and night.”

SOBE’s downtown customers have been without heating, cooling and hot water service since Wabash repossessed the mobile plant Sept. 30. The mobile plant provided the utility services.

Wabash, of Wheeling, Illinois, had been renting a mobile steam plant to SOBE for nearly six years. After some delays, the company finally repossessed it because SOBE owes $383,214 in back payments. Wabash won a default judgment when SOBE failed to respond to the lawsuit or hire attorneys to represent it.

Since Martin was appointed receiver of SOBE on Sept. 26, he and the PUCO have been working with the city to find an option to provide utility services to customers.

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

That came a day after Youngstown State University officials said the school’s boiler system couldn’t provide utility services to SOBE customers through an old piping system because substantial leaks were found.

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.

Martin is now running the company’s day-to-day operations.

SOBE wanted to convert rubber tire chips into synthetic gas at its Youngstown facility. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency granted a permit on Feb. 14, 2024, to permit SOBE to move ahead with that plan, with the city filing an appeal March 15, 2024.

That plan appears to be dead with SOBE’s former law firm withdrawing from an Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission case, almost certainly because SOBE could no longer pay the legal fees.

Also, Alcon Mechanical Piping Inc. of Niles on July 19 filed a complaint against SOBE in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for nonpayment for the January 2024 installation of piping at two downtown businesses that receive steam heat from SOBE on behalf of that company.

Alcon is suing for $428,458, including compensatory damages. With SOBE not responding to the lawsuit, Alcon filed Sept. 22 for a default judgment. A hearing on that request is set for Oct. 28.

Youngstown Thermal 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.