|
Chronological List of District Heating
Systems in the United States |
The Youngstown Heating Company was incorporation on June 29, 1900 with a capital stock of $100,000. The company was generally known as the Youngstown Steam Heating Company. They built a piping system that began service later in 1900 and was sold to the Mahoning County Light Company in 1915. This company became part of Ohio Edison when it was formed in 1930.
The steam system was sold to Youngstown Thermal in 1980 and then to Sobe Thermal in 2019.
References
1900 "New
Ohio Corporations," The Cleveland Leader, June 30, 1900,
Page 1.
June 29 - The Youngstown Heating Company, Youngstown, capital stock
$100,00
1900 American
Manufacturer 67(5):89 (August 2, 1900)
The Youngstown Steam Heating Company a few days ago received its first
consignment of piping for the construction of its steam conveyance lines
through the city. The pipes are being made for the American District Steam
Company, of Lockport, N. Y., by a Saginaw firm. The pipes are of equal
length 6 feet long, 13 inches inside circumference and 22 inches outside.
The inner lining is of tin, surrounded by nine inches of pine and cedar
wood casing. The contract requires nine car loads of 90 joints each. In
constructing the line the pipes are protected from decaying and are
guaranteed to wear 30 years.
1915 Public
Utility Reports 1915E:831 (1915)
Ohio, In Re Mahoning County Light Co., January 5, 1915, sale of steam
heating system from the Youngstown Heating Company to the Mahoning County
Light Company (consolidation)
1953 "Ohio Edison Company Expands Steam Heating Plant at Youngstown, Ohio," District Heating 39(1):12 (July 1953)
1968 "We Supply STEAM Too," District Heating 54(1):19,22 (Summer 1968)
1980 "Ohio
Edison to sell steam heat system," The Plain Dealer, June 6,
1980, Page 18.
Youngstown Thermal Corp. a subsidiary of Energy Systems Management Corp.,
of Coral Gables, Fla. Steam heat system in Springfield to close
November 1. Ohio Edison, which provides electricity to 830,000
customers in 36 Ohio counties, also operates a steam heat system in Akron.
That plant will be taken over by the city once Akron's new garbage-burning
energy recycling plant been in successful commercial operation for 90
days..
1994 "Thermal
Ventures Pursues Growth Plans in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Youngstown,"
District Energy 80(2):10-13 (Fourth Quarter 1994)
Avers, who led United Thermal Energy Corp.'s purchase and expansion of six
systems before leaving as the company's chairman in 1990, has quickly
picked up where he left off. Founded in 1990, Thermal Ventures now
operates steam district heating systems in San Francisco, Calif.,
Pittsburgh, Pa., and Youngstown, Ohio, as well as a district cooling
system in Pittsburgh.
Expansion plans are under way in all three cities. In Youngstown,
expansion plans include a new district cooling service.
Thermal Ventures was formed in 1990 to do what Avers and Mahoney had done
best at United Thermal - acquire, operate and improve district energy
systems.
"By 1988, United Thermal had essentially gotten out of the business of
acquiring district heating and cooling systems," Avers recalls.
2004 "Thermal
Ventures II," The Vindicator, July 17, 2004
The company that provides steam heat to downtown Youngstown expanded into
Detroit last year and is on the verge of growing again.
Youngstown-based Thermal Ventures II is studying more acquisitions and
plans to add a new system every year, said Jeff Bees, company president
and chief executive.
Bees declined to say anything about potential additions other than that
the company isn't afraid to take on systems that need new investment to
improve their operations and efficiency. Such deals take about a year to
review, he said.
Company history
The parent company of Youngstown Thermal has the money to buy other
heating systems because of a partnership created in 2000 with Yorktown
Energy Partners, a New York investment firm that handles endowment money
for some major universities.
Yorktown owns a controlling interest in Thermal Ventures II, which was a
new entity created for the purpose of expansion. Yorktown wanted to expand
its investments and liked the local company's expansion plans, Bees said.
Thermal Ventures II was created out of Thermal Ventures Inc., which was
founded by Carl Avers and Lewis Mahoney.
The original company remains but has moved its headquarters to Akron,
where it operates a steam heating system for much of downtown. Thermal
Ventures Inc. retains a minority ownership interest in Thermal Ventures
II.
Mahoney retired in 1999, but Avers continues as chairman of Thermal
Ventures Inc. Bees had been general manager of Youngstown Thermal and
Akron Thermal before being named the leader of Thermal Ventures II.
He said the agreement that created Thermal Ventures II gives it the option
to bring Akron Thermal under its umbrella, but it hasn't yet done that.
Preparation for growth
Avers said, however, that he intends for Thermal Ventures to grow and has
just created a management team of people in their mid-40s to lead the
company into the future. Avers, 66, said customers sign long-term
contracts for steam and want to have stable management in place when they
sign such deals.
The Akron company is looking to grow by taking over the heating systems
for large industrial plants in the region and throughout Ohio and western
Pennsylvania, he said. Thermal Ventures previously had ownership stakes in
downtown systems in Pittsburgh and San Francisco but sold those in 1999.
Meanwhile, Thermal Ventures II is looking to expand with more district
heating systems such as the ones in Youngstown and Detroit. Youngstown's
system serves about 50 customers, while Detroit's system has about 135
customers with 250 buildings.
Youngstown Thermal also has a cooling system with four customers.
Bees said now is a good time to grow because utilities that operate steam
systems around the country are reconsidering their investments in those
systems. Some utilities are preferring to invest in natural gas
exploration instead of upgrading steam systems because of the rising cost
of natural gas, he said.
In limbo
Thermal Ventures II also owns steam systems that heat two industrial
plants, although company officials are less interested in such systems
going forward, Bees said.
The future of both systems is up in the air, he said. One is at a
manufacturing plant in Tennessee, which may be closed by the manufacturer.
The other is at an industrial park in Virginia which has lost its largest
tenant.
Thermal Ventures II also is looking to sell two hotel heating systems it
owns in Orange County, Calif. It bought the systems in 2000 to serve
hotels that were expected to develop in the area. The development didn't
occur, so the company intends to sell the systems to owners of the hotels
where they are located, Bees said.
Thermal Ventures II, which has about $50 million in annual sales, has its
headquarters at Penguin Place at North Champion Street and East Rayen
Avenue. The former telephone company and university classroom building was
renovated by Leslie Cochran, former Youngstown State University president,
and his wife, Lin.
Thermal Ventures II has nine employees in the top floor of the building
and is trying to lease the bottom floor. The company has 120 employees
throughout all of its systems.
The Youngstown system has about six miles of steam lines that range in
diameter from three inches to 18 inches.
Youngstown Thermal's plant between Belmont and North avenues at the edge
of downtown uses coal to fuel boilers that make steam. Pressurized steam
is taken from the plant to the heating system of a building, where the
steam raises the temperature of a coil in a heat exchanger. The heat is
then distributed by ducts in the building.
2012 "CEO::
Plant ‘to stop burning coal’," The Vindicator, January
29, 2012
Sulphur-dioxide emissions from Youngstown Thermal’s North Avenue steam
plant have increased in recent years because it recently has been burning
higher-sulphur coal, according to Carl Avers, the company’s chief
executive officer.
The plant is burning higher-sulphur coal because its coal supply is being
mined from higher-sulphur veins than were previously mined, Avers said.
Although Youngstown Thermal has received several air-pollution warnings
and citations from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in the last
decade, including a 2010 citation for excessive sulphur-dioxide emissions,
all were resolved without fines or penalties, according to Mike Settles, a
state EPA spokesman.
However, the company was fined $1,000 and ordered to take corrective
measures in a 2005 settlement agreement with the U.S. EPA concerning a
citation for excessive ash and soot emissions.
The 20,000 tons of coal burned annually in the plant comes entirely from
Ohio and costs the company about $75 a ton, Avers said.
To haul in lower-sulphur out-of-state coal, Avers said: “We’d have to get
it out of Kentucky at about twice the price” or from the western United
States at prohibitive prices.
Despite the doubling of coal prices in the past decade as demand increased
due to China’s purchases of American coal, the North Avenue plant is still
heavily coal-dependent because coal is still much cheaper than oil and
natural gas, Avers said.
However, Avers said his plant this year will begin burning waste wood,
which is plentiful at sawmills, cheaper and causes less air pollution than
coal.
“There’s too much pollution from the coal” burning, and waste wood burns
“only a little cleaner than coal,” observed George Peya of Youngstown,
chairman of the local Salt Springs Group of the Ohio Chapter of the Sierra
Club.
The Sierra Club is a San Francisco-based national environmental quality
advocacy organization now engaged in a “Beyond Coal Campaign” designed to
promote the replacement of coal burning with cleaner energy sources.
Peya said he prefers natural gas, which he said is much cleaner burning
than coal or wood. Coal is the fuel for three Youngstown Thermal boilers
and natural gas fuels the company’s backup boiler.
“When you harvest a tree, about 50 percent of it becomes waste” and the
waste wood can be acquired for the cost of transporting it, Avers said.
Besides sawmills, Avers said he hopes to acquire waste wood from
storm-related municipal tree-cuttings. He also said trees killed by the
ash borer will add significantly to the waste-wood supply.
Avers acknowledged that the U.S. and Ohio environmental protection
agencies will soon lower smokestack- emissions limits to the point where
coal-burning plants can’t meet them. “We’re going to stop burning coal,”
he said.
To meet the new emissions limits, Avers said he plans to buy and install
coal and wood gasification equipment, with the plant burning the gas
produced in the process and keeping the sulphur within the plant in the
ash, which can easily be removed and disposed of properly.
“From an environmental standpoint, it’ll be as clean as natural gas,”
Avers said of the gasification process.
“I could see a practical use of that for something like demolition wood
from homes, rather than burying it in a landfill,” Peya said of
gasification technology.
“My strategy is to go to wood first and eventually put in these
gasifiers,” Avers said. “My job is to manage the fuel to the lowest cost
for my customers,” Avers added.
“Many people visit our plant, and they can’t believe that we burn coal
there,” Avers said, noting that smoke from its smokestack’s isn’t visible
most of the year.
That’s because the North Avenue plant uses an advanced technology known as
flue gas re-circulation, which keeps soot within the plant, where it is
burned up, he explained.
2012 "Save $20K with
steam, Mahoning leaders told," McClatchy - Tribune Business News,
October 19, 2012.
Oct. 19--YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County immediately should switch its
courthouse, administration and jail buildings from natural gas to steam
heat to save about $20,100 annually, an engineering consultant said.
The commissioners heard the recommendation from Chris J. Morrone III, an
engineer with CJL Engineering of Youngstown, the consulting firm
commissioners hired to perform the energy study of the three buildings.
Morrone urged commissioners to discontinue using the natural-gas- fired
boilers in those buildings and return to using steam from Youngstown
Thermal, which had been used to heat those buildings before 2006.
The steam would be supplied by boilers that burn wood waste and coal at
Youngstown Thermal's North Avenue plant, which heats most of Youngstown
State University and many buildings in and near downtown.
Even with today's low natural-gas prices, Morrone told the commissioners
during a Thursday staff meeting they could save $7,000 at the courthouse,
$7,700 at the county administration building and $5,400 annually at the
jail by making the switch.
Carl E. Avers, chairman of Youngstown Thermal, said his company is
prepared to enter into contract with the county for three years at a
constant rate of $14.50 per thousand pounds of steam.
John A. McNally IV, chairman of the county commissioners, said
commissioners will await a report from another consultant, Palmer Energy
of Toledo, before they decide. Palmer negotiates for counties on energy
procurement.
In their board meeting earlier Thursday, commissioners heard Butch Taylor,
business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 396, say oil and
gas drilling and related industries offer many local job opportunities for
those trained in the construction trades.
"Our membership has increased by 15 percent because of this work," he said
of his local, which has about 460 active members.
"What's exciting is that the first processing plant in Columbiana County
is going to get started," with construction beginning this fall, he said.
Taylor was referring to the Millennium natural gas processing plant near
Hanoverton.
Taylor's local offers a five-year apprenticeship program, where he said
participants earn a living while learning on the job, and their only
out-of-pocket costs are for books. Apprenticeship applicants may call
Marty Loney, Local 396's apprenticeship coordinator, at 330-758-4596.
Taylor said his union and the ironworkers' union will benefit greatly from
the Millennium construction project.
"These are long-term jobs. These are jobs that pay very well with
benefits," he told the commissioners. "The future looks very bright for
us," he added.
Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti said, "It's going to be one of the
largest things this area has ever seen since the steel industry, so we
have to prepare for it. We have to get training programs in place. These
jobs pay very, very well."
Credit: Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio
2016 "Avers
to ask city to consider Thermal," The Vindicator, November
7, 2016
Today, the executive of the city’s district energy system will present why
he thinks the city should stick with steam.
Carl Avers, chief executive officer of Youngstown Thermal, wants to keep
the city on the system for heating, add cooling services and change the
way the city turns on the lights.
Avers asked for a chance to present his plan for the city, which is what
he will do at 5 p.m. today at the city council meeting of the buildings
and grounds committee.
“We would like them, and frankly everyone else in town, to modernize their
buildings with smart money,” Avers said.
The “smart money” comes from the zero-percent financing Youngstown Thermal
offers on the capital it finds for customers.
“Our capital can only be targeted for energy efficiency,” Avers said.
Youngstown Thermal has proposed to take the city’s utility costs, which
includes steam service, electricity and natural gas, to $2.7 million per
year. In 2015, the city paid out $4,005,065 in utilities, according to the
city’s finance department.
The company would do this by providing district steam services to the city
buildings except the water department, establish steam-based cooling and
contract with the city to enroll in a “progressive” electric purchasing
program.
“It’s a series of projects,” Avers said. “It involves restructuring their
electric and gas services.”
The cost to the city to transition its utilities under Avers’ plan:
nothing.
“The cost comes out of the savings,” Avers said.
Right now, Youngstown Thermal provides steam service to city hall, the
police department, 20 Federal Place, the city hall annex and the downtown
fire station. The city’s natural gas is provided by Direct Energy through
an agreement with Dominion. The city’s electricity comes from
Constellation through an agreement with Ohio Edison.
The city decided last summer to seek bid proposals for its central heating
and cooling services after Youngstown Thermal lost a top customer in
Youngstown State University.
YSU had Johnson Controls, a Milwaukee-based company, build a new $16
million steam plant that YSU said would save about $2 million a year.
“We are concerned about the long-term financial stability of Youngstown
Thermal,” Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally said.
The city also was concerned over some of the challenges other service
users have had with Youngstown Thermal, McNally said.
The mayor recently received a letter from downtown businesses on the
Youngstown Thermal system about their concerns of what would happen to
Youngstown Thermal financially if the city were to go off the system.
“The administration and the council have to think of the effects,” McNally
said.
In addition to Youngstown Thermal, Middleburg Heights-based Brewer-Garrett
Co. submitted a proposal to the city.
In October, the city said it would dump Youngstown Thermal and go with
Brewer-Garrett, but the buildings and grounds committee voted to give
Avers an opportunity to pitch his proposal before a final decision is
made.
Brewer-Garrett’s proposal puts an end to purchasing direct steam
altogether, focusing instead on constructing local boiler plants at the
city-owned buildings previously serviced by Youngstown Thermal.
The steam boilers would have a service life of at least 35 years or more
with proper maintenance, according to the proposal.
During a presentation to the city’s buildings and grounds committee,
Brewer-Garrett said the city would pay the company $1,839,700 for the
work, guaranteeing that the municipality would save at least $3,234,180
over 15 years. After the initial cost, the city would save $1,294,480
under the proposal.
The Vindicator requested the proposed contract between the city and
Brewer-Garrett, but that proposal was denied because it “is exempt from
disclosure as the contract is in the process of being negotiated and
protected by attorney-client privilege,” said Anthony Donofrio, city
deputy law director, in an email.
Before the city enters into an agreement with Brewer-Garrett, city council
and the board of control have to approve it.
2017 "Youngstown
Thermal hints at energy crisis," The Vindicator, June 30,
2017
Youngstown Thermal Chief Executive Officer Carl Avers has been adamant in
interviews this week that customers in his company’s energy network
shouldn’t be afraid they will lose service despite reports of financial
woes.
But his company conveyed a different story to the staff of the Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio earlier this month when it told PUCO that the
state had to intervene in Youngstown Thermal’s financial struggles because
“the current inability of Youngstown Thermal to pay its utility suppliers
could result in an energy crisis in the downtown Youngstown area.”
As a result of an ensuing investigation, the PUCO staff on Thursday
requested the state immediately ask the Ohio attorney general to seek the
appointment of a receiver for the beleaguered energy company.
The commission meets at 2 p.m. today to consider the staff’s
recommendation.
“Through this review, staff determined Youngstown Thermal is unable to pay
utility suppliers, debt service, and employee payroll when those expenses
are due,” the report says. “Therefore, the [PUCO] staff determined the
company is permitting or about to permit a breach of its duty to furnish
adequate service to its customers and is instead insolvent and or in
imminent danger of insolvency.”
In total, there are about 50 buildings that receive heat services from
Youngstown Thermal and four that receive cooling.
Though PUCO would not speculate on what will happen to customers between
now and when the receiving company takes over Youngstown Thermal, Avers
maintained “the public utilities commission is protecting their interest.”
Avers initiated the process of having PUCO investigate Youngstown
Thermal’s financial struggles because it was his “fiduciary
responsibility” to do so.
“I had no choice,” he said. “I have an obligation to tell them that we
have a temporary problem and we need their help to solve it.”
Avers says the process started last year when he realized the financial
impact the loss of his largest customer, Youngstown State University,
would have on his company. YSU left the system in June 2016.
“At that time, YSU represented approximately 60 percent of both the system
load and revenues for Youngstown Thermal,”
PUCO’s staff report says.
Then, Youngstown Thermal lost the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced
Supercritical Project, which was supposed to supplement the loss of YSU.
Avers said the Department of Energy no longer needed to use the Youngstown
Thermal plant for testing.
“The steam they would have used was several times larger than YSU,” Avers
said.
Then, this year Avers says he started to have a hard time collecting
revenue from four major unnamed customers. The Vindicator discovered
Wednesday that one of the customers is the city of Youngstown for the city
hall building. A broken meter led to four-plus years of underbilling that
totals $141,570. The city disputes that figure.
“We have a unique setup of circumstances where major customers are
refusing to pay for services that they have used,” Avers said.
Now, utility suppliers have threatened to shut off the electricity and gas
supply to the North Avenue Youngstown Thermal plant.
The management of Youngstown Thermal also informed the PUCO staff that it
was unable to process payment for payroll.
Without proper staff members in key roles, the plant would be in immediate
jeopardy. PUCO’s report notes, for example, an operator holding an Ohio
boiler license must be present to operate boilers used to generate steam.
“Without a licensed boiler operator on site, the Youngstown Thermal plant
must be shut down until licensed operators can be found to properly run
the plant,” the report notes.
Concerned employees reached out to The Vindicator explaining that though
employees have been paid, their paychecks came days late and they recently
discovered that their health insurance has been canceled.
Another financial concern for the company is a $5 million loan it secured.
The debt from the loan has now reached $7 million and will reach $9
million in December.
Youngstown Thermal also is behind in the annual payments it owes to the
commission.
The staff of PUCO expressed concern for Youngstown Thermal’s record
keeping. In March 2015, the staff requested historical data and current
data for expenses and revenues, operations and finances.
“The results of staff’s analysis were inconclusive because the records
provided by Youngstown Thermal were incomplete, inconsistent, inaccurate,
and in many cases, unavailable,” the report says.
The report further warned, “Youngstown Thermal has not filed for nor has
it received commission approval for any of its [10] existing customer
contracts, as required under Ohio law.”
Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally is hopeful the commission will accept the
recommendation made by PUCO staff.
The report “confirms what many people that have had to deal with
Youngstown Thermal over the past year or 18 months — that there’s a large
degree of financial challenges that Thermal has been trying to deal with,”
McNally said. “I think between Youngstown Thermal and PUCO they will
figure out a way to bridge a gap between now and the appointment of the
receiver.”
Earlier this week, Avers announced the Youngstown Thermal assets are for
sale.
“We have a huge bump in the road in the and we have to get over it,” Avers
said. “It will survive.”
2019 "Youngstown
Thermal has a deal in place to sell," The Vindicator, May 3,
2019
Youngstown Thermal, a steam utility company that is supposed to provide
heating and air cooling services to about 40 downtown customers, could be
sold for $250,000.
The agreement was signed April 19 with SOBE Energy Solutions of Dublin,
according to documents obtained by The Vindicator.
The documents states Reg Martin, Youngstown Thermal’s receiver, “reports
that the sale price is believed to be the highest and best price to be had
in the foreseeable future.”
The deal won’t be finalized until Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning
County Common Pleas Court approves it.
Judge Krichbaum said his magistrate, Timothy G. Welsh, received a copy of
it Friday of the agreement.
“It won’t be approved until notice is given and all the necessary steps
are taken to give time to people who want to object,” Judge Krichbaum
said. “The parties have agreed in principle, but it’s subject to approval.
It will take time, but not a great deal of time” to approve it.
The documents state Martin “urges the court to approve the present sale
due to the exigent circumstances involved, specifically, that there is a
significant risk that, if not sold presently, the property may decrease in
value due to current market conditions and administrative expenses will
increase thereby diminishing the value to creditors.”
The utility owns four parcels on North and Belmont avenues in Youngstown.
Attempts Friday by The Vindicator to reach Martin and Stephen E. Hubbard,
SOBE’s CEO, were unsuccessful.
SOBE’s website states the company provides “power generation through the
use of its unique waste-to-energy conversion technology. The waste being
converted during the technology process is to a clean synthetic fuel gas
that can be used directly in burners for process heating or in gas
turbines or reciprocating engines for electricity generation.”
Martin was appointed receiver in August 2017 after the Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio was informed by Youngstown Thermal’s then-CEO Carl
Avers that the business was in a financial struggle that could have caused
an energy crisis in downtown. The company couldn’t ensure adequate service
to its customers and was in danger of insolvency when the PUCO stepped in.
Martin was able to stabilize the company’s finances, but has said a
receiver isn’t a permanent solution.
Martin tried in August 2018 to convince the city, a thermal customer, to
take over the utility company, but Youngstown officials said they wouldn’t
do it.
Matt Schilling, PUCO spokesman, said his agency hasn’t seen the documents
as of Friday.
“We’d expect them to make regulatory filings with the PUCO, but I don’t
know the timing of that,” he said.
Meanwhile, the utility once again is struggling to keep three downtown
business cool.
Youngstown Thermal provides cooling services to The Vindicator, Home
Savings Bank and the Youngstown Business Incubator. For at least the
fourth year in a row, the service is down.
Kathy Bushway, Home Savings’ director of marketing, said the utility
company’s main chiller is down and a smaller chiller is being used.
There was a rupture in the chiller line that left the three businesses
without cooling services for about two weeks in June 2018.
“We’re hoping to get this fixed before we get too many hot days this year.
We’re keeping people as cool as we can with fans. It’s been warm the last
few days, but not as bad as last summer,” Bushway said. Last year, Home
Savings and the two other businesses had to bring in portable air
conditioning units during the problem.
“We’re looking forward to them coming up with a long-term operating plan
that provides adequate service,” Bushway said.
Barb Ewing, CEO of the business incubator, said: “While we’re hopeful that
a new ownership structure will bring the resources needed to resolve these
issues, in the near term, we need to get the situation resolved. The
reality is that not being able to provide a comfortable working
environment impacts our companies and their employees.”
2021 Stop-Sobe
SOBE Energy Solutions is a Dublin, Ohio based, for-profit consulting
company run by David Ferro, CEO. SOBE is marketing itself as a
pollution-free solution to our plastic recycling problem.
SOBE Energy Solutions bought the defunct Youngstown Thermal, a coal-fired
steam heat plant for $250,000. SOBE applied to the Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio as a heating and cooling utility that would provide
steam heat for downtown Youngstown buildings. SOBE misrepresented its
business when it applied as SOBE Thermal Energy stating it would provide
steam heating “in the same manner and rate structure as Youngstown
Thermal.” PUCO granted SOBE a permit to purchase Youngstown Thermal, at
205 North Avenue on November 16, 2021.
2022 "Carl E. Avers, a long-time figure in the district energy industry and the first recipient of IDEA’s Norm Taylor Award, in 1986, passes away," November 18, 2022
2026 "In Ohio City, Officials Take Heat Over Residents’ Lack of It," The New York Times, February 12, 2026
2026 "SOBE Receiver Agrees to Resign; Replacement Requested," Business Journal, February 12, 2026
© 2026 Morris A. Pierce