YOUNGSTOWN - Several buildings in downtown Youngstown have been without heat for several days. Now, the city has filed a motion in court asking a judge to allow the city to intervene.

In a court document, the City of Youngstown slams SOBE Thermal Energy Solutions, which provides heat for 28 buildings in downtown Youngstown, claiming that it has failed to provide necessary and adequate steam service as ordered by the court.

The document states that several buildings, including Youngstown City Hall, the YMCA, SMARTS, the Youngstown Business Incubator and the Oh Wow! Science Center have been without heat for several days, dating back to Tuesday, January 27.

Additionally, the document states that the restaurant West 34, which is housed in the Wick Tower building, had to close, and that the Wick Tower building owner had to pay for the tenants of the building's apartments to stay in a hotel.

The document further states that the owners of the Ohio One Building had to go "above and beyond" to accommodate commercial tenants, and that Domestic Linen had to drastically reduce operations.

"Such an outage poses a grave risk to public health. Without this information being provided to this Court, and without the City's direct involvement in this case, the City risks damage to the public health and public infrastructure without any means to protect its interests," the document reads.

This all dates back to September of 2025, when the Wabash-owned mobile boiler SOBE had been using to heat downtown buildings had been repossessed due to delinquent payments from SOBE.

Since then, a receiver was appointed to oversee the situation and a new boiler was brought to SOBE.

"The city agrees that the repossession of SOBE's boilers and inadequate finances, combined with the statutory obligation to nevertheless provide steam services to customers in downtown Youngstown made the receiver's job profoundly more difficult than the typical receivership. ... But the recent total and complete failure of SOBE to provide heat to City Hall and other downtown buildings for six days represents a profound change in circumstance that can no longer allow the city to remain idle, particularly when the public's health is at stake," the document reads.

An 800-horsepower boiler was installed at the SOBE plant on Sunday evening, replacing the insufficient 650-horsepower units installed after the previous boilers were repossessed in October.

According to an update sent by SOBE President John Rambo on Monday, the 650-horsepower boiler tripped off around 11 a.m. while the 800-horsepower was down for calibration and inspection.

Afterwards, the 800-horsepower boiler was brought online and pressure is building now.

As of Monday afternoon, Rambo said the boiler ran well overnight, but is at a 30% firing rate. A technician is currently calibrating various setpoints for operations, which will require various shutdowns of the boiler.

The 200-horsepower boiler is currently still active.

"The extreme cold weather has also impacted the startup, as some piping required replacement.  Contractors are working today to check all connection points and components for leaks, make sure all the bolts are tightened properly and search for potential issues that could develop," Rambo said in a communication to affected buildings on Monday afternoon.

Rambo tells 21 News he expects heating in downtown buildings to be back to normal on Tuesday, January 3.