Late last year, the Warren City Council declined to allocate $500,000 in state grant funding to a developer for rehabilitation of a geothermal system that provides heating and cooling to several downtown buildings.

The issue was back before the new council on Monday.

And current council members want more information before making a decision.

The developer, Robert Yoder, told the council that the system is the only community system — meaning it serves more than one building — in the state. The funding source is Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program dollars.

The system serves the building that houses Erie Bank and a number of apartments, the townhouses, TAWC and the Allegheny Community Center.

Yoder said the current users pay a “minimal” fee for heating and cooling. The upgrades outlined, he said, would make the system more efficient.

Council member Wendy McCain asked how the project relates to economic development in downtown Warren.

Riverfront

“If I increase the costs, your taxpayers in town are going to pay (more),” he said, arguing that the project does not benefit him financially and is a “long-term fix.”

“This is the highest quality stuff you can buy for this kind of application,” he explained, noting that the original pumps being replaced with current technology could reduce the electric costs by half.

The tricky thing about the proposal discussed Monday is that it includes more than just the geothermal system. Yoder offered a perpetual easement along the trail for construction of a trail as well as turning over the vacant townhouse concrete pad to the city. But the city would take on the care of Breeze Point Circle, which would need repaved at a cost of about $50,000. The city currently owns the land under the roadway but has not been responsible for caring for the street.

Yoder said he wants to resolve all of those issues at once.

“I’m willing to help do whatever needs to be done to have this transfer,” he said. “(I) would like to have it done all at the same time.”

McCain asked if Yoder would still consider the other items without the $500,000 award.

“I have to look at it,” he responded.

Councilman John Wortman asked if the package deal is “something we are legally allowed to do.”

“I think there are serious upsides to that geothermal system being in the best condition it can be,” he said, but noted he would be “very hesitant until we understand the legality of how those things interact to move forward in any kind of formal way.”

Council ultimately settled on the idea of a special meeting to discuss the issue in more depth.

“There’s a lot of important things that need to be put in the soup, so to speak, in terms of how this comes together,” Mayor Dave Wortman said. “The geothermal system and how it impacts the riverfront, that is very important obviously.”

But he said the other components are “very important to the long-term health and welfare of the city and other initiatives that are being looked at. The specifics on addressing those so we can have a conversation and a debate that considers all those things once those facts are known… would be far more productive.”

The special meeting, he said, would provide an opportunity to consider those issues “in a holistic context.”

A date for that meeting was not set during the meeting.

Council did allocate $500,000 in RACP funding to itself for projects including a generator for the municipal building and fire hall, a new fire alarm system for the municipal building, a diesel exhaust particulate extraction system for the fire department and window replacement at the fire department truck bay.