Marlborough committee backs SMOC lease at Walker Building, delays charter vote

MARLBOROUGH — November 13, 2025 — Marlborough panel advances $30,844 SMOC lease at Walker Building, postpones ward-vacancy charter rewrite. The Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee voted 3-0 Thursday to recommend leasing 1,890 square feet on the Walker Building's first floor to the South Middlesex Opportunity Council for its WIC program at $2,570.40 per month over three years, with a two-year renewal option. Committee Chair Laura Wagner called it "a steady and reliable source of revenue"; Councilor Donald Vital opposed adding tenants without a long-term municipal buildings plan, saying past requests to the mayor drew "crickets." Members postponed Council President Michael Ossing's proposed Section 59A charter change, which would let the council appoint ward councilors mid-term, after coalescing around a compromise requiring an election only in the first 12 months of a two-year term. The committee also placed on file an April communication from City Solicitor Cynthia Panagore Griffin on the pending Ward 7 home-rule petition.