The Warren City Council on Monday rejected a $500,000 request from the owner of the downtown geothermal energy system.

The system was built about 15 years ago, according to the developer, Robert Yoder.

It serves the TAWC building, Allegheny Community Center, townhouses on the riverfront and much of the riverside buildings on the block of Pennsylvania W. between Liberty St. and Hickory St.

Geothermal energy, essentially, is the subsurface heat of the earth.

Yoder told the council that the system was the only one in the state when it was built and was designed to heat and cool one million square feet.

He told the council the system was also to provide service to a proposed hotel and conference center. “Everything went down the tubes,” he said, when the “economy went in the tank” in the late 2000s.

“What we’re looking at is to upgrade the system,” he said, “up to today’s standard or higher.”

He stressed that these are upgrades, not maintenance and said he was asking for $500,000 in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) funds to cover the cost.

The state has awarded the city a total of $7.5 million in RACP funding which the city is working to allocate to a litany of projects including both boutique hotels and improvements at Warren General Hospital and — if the city can get permission — for work on the Clark St. parking garage.

Councilman John Wortman asked how many people are impacted by the geothermal system as well as how long the system might last. Yoder identified 48 in the apartments, 17 in the townhouses as well as daily traffic at Erie Bank, TAWC and the ACC.

“It’ll be an ongoing maintenance thing,” Yoder said. “(It) won’t have the highest efficiency. That’s what we’re looking at.” He said total cost of the project is just in excess of $500,000.

Council previously heard comments about problems with the system, specifically not sufficient cooling and the use of window AC units in the summer.

“I don’t know if this is the right project to move forward at this time,” Wortman said, noting that the system is working and that there are other projects that could be funded.

“One of the biggest losers is going to be the senior center and TAWC,” Yoder said.

“But the system is functioning,” Wortman said.

He added that it would be nice to upgrade the system but that the funding could be used “more effectively” elsewhere.

City Manager Nancy Freenock said she needed council direction about whether to bring a sub-grantee agreement to the December meeting.

No member of council made a motion to that end, effectively thwarting the request.