YOUNGSTOWN — Efforts failed to have Youngstown State University provide utility services to SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC’s customers, leaving a court-appointed receiver running the company and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio searching for options to service much of downtown.

John Hyden, YSU’s associate vice president for facilities and support services, said the university’s boiler system initially couldn’t get steam to SOBE through an old piping system last used in 2016 when YSU stopped using the services of Youngstown Thermal, SOBE’s predecessor.

Then on Wednesday, Hyden said, “We started to feed steam into the system and discovered some pretty substantial leaks.”

The cost of fixing the leaks is unknown and would have to be paid by the PUCO or Reg Martin, SOBE’s court-appointed receiver, Hyden said.

Because YSU was only going to provide steam for the utility services for a brief time, an obstacle too big to overcome is the time it would take to repair the leaks in the underground pipes, Hyden said.

“We’re not going to be able to serve them from our system,” he said. “We made the effort, but the stars aren’t properly aligned.”

Youngstown City Hall, the city’s main downtown fire station and the police station are among customers, which includes 27 buildings. Two of the buildings have 90 residents.

The only option Hyden said he sees is for Martin to rent another mobile steam plant after the one used by SOBE was repossessed Tuesday.

Hyden said: “I don’t know the cost, but to get another (mobile) boiler to come in here is not going to be cheap. But it is the only solution. This is a very, very rare circumstance. Reg and the (PUCO) need to figure out what to do, and I don’t envy their position.”

Wabash Power Equipment Co., which had been renting a mobile steam plant to SOBE for nearly six years, repossessed it Tuesday because SOBE owes $383,214 in back payments. Wabash’s mobile plant provided heating, cooling and hot water services to much of downtown.

SOBE has also walked away from a court case for nonpayment and a state matter in which it sought to convert rubber tire chips into synthetic gas at its Youngstown plant — and hasn’t bothered to hire attorneys.

A judge took control of the Youngstown plant away from SOBE on Friday and gave it to Martin at the request of the PUCO.

Matt Schilling, PUCO spokesman, said Wednesday, “It’s a very fluid situation and talks are ongoing with us, the receiver, the city and YSU. We’re in constant conversations with all the parties and we have no further details.”

Asked about Hyden’s statement that a mobile steam plant is the only option, Schilling said he had “no reaction to that. We’re talking to the groups and nothing is off the table at this point.”

The immediate goal, he said, is for “a short-term solution as soon as possible, but we don’t have a time frame.”

Kenneth R. Goldberg, an attorney representing Martin, filed a stay of execution request Tuesday with Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to stop the repossession of the mobile plant by Wabash. That court filing came hours after Wabash, of Wheeling, Illinois, started removing its equipment, but before it finished.

Magistrate Nicole Butler on Wednesday denied the motion.

She wrote: “While the court acknowledges the import of denying this request and the precarious position of the receiver who was very recently appointed (Friday), Wabash has a valid judgment in its favor and should not be further precluded from executing on that judgment.”

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 Tuesday.

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. Hyden said Youngstown Thermal’s steam “was low quality and expensive so we were forced to make a move to rebuild our boiler plant to have a reliable steam supply. That was the demise of Youngstown Thermal.”

By 2017, Youngstown Thermal, which had numerous problems for years providing service, 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.