SOBE loses 3 customers, reconnects 1

YOUNGSTOWN – SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC lost three of its customers and reconnected one, leaving the troubled steam heat company that services most of downtown with even more financial uncertainty. SOBE receiver John C. Collins and Michael Moran, the company’s attorney, said the utility has 19 remaining customers after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio granted significant emergency rate increases June 24 in an attempt to provide SOBE with stability. The rate increases have failed to generate revenue to help the company, Collins and Moran said. The PUCO approved the rate hikes for SOBE’s customers, with a majority of them paying about 93% more, effective June 30. Three of the 23 buildings on the system have left it, Collins and Moran said. Collins said those three are 6 W. Federal St., the former Chase Tower owned by Ashiana Homes Inc.; the planned Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense at 107 Vindicator Square, the former Youngstown Vindicator production buildin