YOUNGSTOWN - Crews are waiting on a new boiler to be delivered to the same spot where the court repossessed an old boiler just this week. It's the second attempt to get heat to a stretch of buildings in downtown Youngstown after the original plans didn't work out.

On Wednesday, attempts to connect to Youngstown State University's boiler system failed.

Crews told 21 News when they connected all the lines and turned the steam on they found out there were too many leaks. The connection hadn’t been used in years and engineers acknowledged it would be a challenge to restart before the attempt. 

Plan B was to buy a completely new boiler and put it back where the old one was on former SOBE property on North Avenue. That boiler is being delivered from out of state. If it comes Friday, the buildings will have heat and hot water by the end of the weekend. If it comes Thursday they’ll have heat even sooner. 

27 buildings in downtown Youngstown rely on the system. Some of those buildings are apartments with more than 90 residents.

“We’ve been through enough in our downtown. We’re moving forward, we're looking to the future and everything's moving in the right direction and we want to make sure that they get the service that they deserve,” Mayor Tito Brown of Youngstown said. 

Wabash Power Equipment Company requested to repossess the boiler from the SOBE plant in May. A lawsuit between the two companies alleges SOBE “failed to pay all amounts” due under the parties’ lease agreement. A judge ordered SOBE to “cease all use and operations … and completely and permanently shut down, turn off, and disconnect” the equipment. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio stepped in when several buildings were at risk of losing service once the boiler was removed. 

Until the new boiler is delivered there are no other options to provide heat.

Crews said once this boiler is put in they work to get a second boiler as a back up so if anything were to happen to the first one the buildings would never have to go without heat or hot water again.