SOBE Concerned Citizens meet about expiring city ordinance

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The city ordinance preventing a downtown Youngstown company from turning tire chips into synthetic gas expires Dec. 26 and there was a meeting Thursday to encourage the city council to pass it again.

A group calling itself SOBE Concerned Citizens met on the North Side to discuss the plans of SOBE Thermal Energy Solutions to build a pyrolysis plant next to its operation on North Avenue.

The Ohio EPA approved the pyrolysis plant but Youngstown City Council late last year passed an ordinance preventing it.

“It needs to be renewed. It will expire on December 26 and Mayor Brown needs to sign it back into law. It is a law and it keeps gasification and pyrolysis out of Youngstown,” said concerned citizen Lynn Anderson.

Youngstown Councilwoman Anita Davis was at the meeting and said she plans to reintroduce the ordinance and vote for it.

At the SOBE plant this evening, there were no signs of any more construction taking place. SOBE provides the steam energy that heats and cools much of downtown Youngstown.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.