YOUNGSTOWN — In addition to tenants at Wick Tower, SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC sent 10-day disconnection notices to two other downtown Youngstown customers for failing to pay bills though the troubled utility company isn’t seeking to turn off anyone’s steam heat or hot water.

SOBE receiver John C. Collins and Michael Moran, his court-appointed attorney, told The Vindicator on Wednesday that it won’t be until the middle of next week before a formal filing will be made in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on the disconnection issues.

However, both said they would like to resolve the payment issues.

Collins said cutting off steam “is not happening in the foreseeable future. We want to resolve any and all questions and disputes. We don’t want to disconnect anyone.”

Moran said SOBE, which provides steam heat to a majority of downtown Youngstown, sent 10-day disconnection notices on Monday to Wick Tower as well as 22 Market Street Ohio LLC, which is developing the former Mahoning National Bank Building, and FNB Youngstown LLC, which owns Metropolitan Tower.

In a May 27 court filing, Collins, SOBE’s receiver since Feb. 17, wrote there were 11 delinquent accounts — almost half of its customers — with those late bills totaling $307,815.62.

That court filing included a document showing Wick Tower owed $25,913.52 with $14,767.92 being at least 91 days late and $5,572.80 61 to 90 days late and another $5,572.80 31 to 60 days late as of May 26.

The same document shows 22 Market Street Ohio owing $71,450 with $60,000 of it being at least 91 days late and FNB Youngstown owing $28,900.28 with $14,402.60 of it at least 91 days late as of May 26.

Dominic Marchionda, whose company owns Wick Tower, said the bill is in dispute because SOBE failed to adequately provide heat and hot water to his tenants in both January and February, when temperatures were below zero.

Those failures cost over $100,000 in damage to the building as well as the expenses of putting tenants in hotels during SOBE’s failures, credit to renters and lost leases, Marchionda said.

Moran said of Marchionda: “He seems desirous of a resolution. We will wait for direction from him or the court” after the delinquent notices are filed in the middle of next week with Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Donofrio, who is overseeing SOBE’s receivership case.

Reiterating what he wrote in his May 27 court filing, Collins said Wednesday that SOBE is quickly running out of money and on the verge of financial collapse.

SOBE’s monthly income is about $130,000 while its monthly expenses are about $220,000.

In the court filing, Collins wrote that “the company is in the midst of a financial crisis” and will no longer be able to pay for three rented boilers it uses for steam heat by September or October.

Collins said Wednesday: “If we don’t receive some kind of money, yes, we’ll be out of business. We don’t see paying the bills past October.”

Collins has requested the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio permit SOBE to increase the rate on its customers by more than double its current fee.

Moran, on behalf of Collins, filed the request as an emergency on May 21 with the PUCO directing its staff six days later to prepare a report so it can consider the rate increase.

Matt Schilling, PUCO spokesman, said the staff report shouldn’t take much longer, considering the emergency situation SOBE is in.

It normally takes a year for a regular rate increase to come to a vote by the PUCO, Schilling said. It will obviously be quicker for SOBE, but Schilling said he doesn’t have a time frame as emergency requests are infrequent.

Moran said: “There is a notice period when the rate increase occurs. Even if it’s approved, it will take a while to be implemented and then it has to be paid by the customers. Unfortunately, the emergency tariff is not properly designed to restore capital improvements. Maybe it can be, but it’s not going to come fast enough, I’m afraid.”

Collins said the customers would have time to object before the PUCO could approve the emergency increase.

Collins and Moran both said they were concerned the rate increase could take too long.

SOBE’s regular monthly expenses for payroll and materials is about $80,000; rent for three boilers to provide heat to its customers paid to Power Mechanical Inc. of Newport News, Virginia, is $58,200; and “anticipated monthly payments” to Enbridge Gas Co. for gas is $80,000, Collins wrote in his May 27 report.

Except for two partial payments made before he was appointed receiver and a recent payment of a $96,000 bill, Collins said Wednesday that the Enbridge monthly bills weren’t paid between about August or September 2025 to April.

Because of the late bills, Enbridge charged the maximum amount for a period of time and the amount owed is as much as $1,999,656.95. But Collins said Enbridge is working with SOBE and the bill could be reduced to “in excess of $500,000,” to be paid over an 18-month period.

Moran said SOBE will pay some of the money owed to Enbridge during the summer when the rate is lower, “but it’s not a permanent solution at all.”

Collins said there is only enough money left in that fund to pay the rental fees to Power Mechanical until September or October.

Reg Martin, who served as SOBE’s court-appointed receiver from Sept. 26 until being replaced by Collins on Feb. 17, used $750,000 he received from Enbridge as part of that company’s settlement of the 2024 Realty Tower explosion to rent two of the three boilers. SOBE is renting the third boiler from Power Mechanical using its own funds.

However, numerous problems with the three boilers caused them to not provide heat during periods in January and February during the coldest time of the year with temperatures below zero degrees in February.

Collins wrote in his May 27 report: “Unless the receiver is provided funds earmarked for operating expenses by the early fall, the company will not be able to continue to provide services to the customers of downtown Youngstown. If the state of Ohio would consider funding the steam reconstruction, the receiver would hope that that grant of funding includes monthly operating expenses sufficient to continue to operate the business until the reconstruction is complete.”

Youngstown Mayor Derrick McDowell said at a June 1 city council public utilities committee meeting that it would cost about $30 million – $13 million for SOBE’s system and $17 million for the delivery end, including pipes – to get the company self-sufficient.

At that meeting, McDowell said the city was seeking money from the state’s capital budget and its Budget Stabilization Fund, referred to as the rainy day fund, as options to help SOBE.

But Dan Tierney, Gov. Mike DeWine’s spokesman, told The Vindicator that state money for SOBE won’t come from either.

Collins said: “We’re searching diligently for all answers. We were holding out hope it would come from the rainy day fund so we’d be able to buy boilers. It was news to us and it’s terrible news.”

Moran said: “I don’t know who can provide financing at this point,” with Collins saying, “I don’t know that either.”

In the May 27 court filing, Collins wrote David Ferro, SOBE’s CEO, decided in 2022 to scrap three coal-fired and one gas-fired boiler at the Youngstown location, 205 North Ave., and raze the boiler house “leaving in its place a massive hole in the ground, and he took no steps to remediate this potential nuisance.”

In 2019, Ferro entered into a lease agreement with Wabash Power Equipment Co. of Wheeling, Illinois, for an 800-horsepower boiler to provide heat to customers. After months of SOBE not paying for the boiler – and owing $383,214 in back payments – Wabash repossessed the boiler on Sept. 30, leaving SOBE without any way to provide steam heat to most of downtown.

Ferro walked away from the Youngstown location with the business on the brink of financial collapse, owing about $4 million to creditors, a few days before Wabash’s repossession was completed.