Marlborough council approves North Bigelow utility pole, refers Donald Lynch hotel kitchenettes to committee

MARLBOROUGH — February 8, 2021 — Marlborough mayor blasts state's 100-dose weekly vaccine allotment as council clears utility pole. Mayor Arthur Vigeant told the City Council on Feb. 8 that the state allocation would require seven and a half years to vaccinate the city's 40,000 residents, calling the pace "absolutely ridiculous" and the regional mass-vaccination model unworkable. He reported the 14-day positivity rate had fallen to about 7 percent with roughly 140 active cases, and that 380 first-responder second doses and a 180-dose senior clinic were scheduled for the week. The council voted 11-0 to approve a National Grid petition for a new utility pole on North Bigelow Street with conditions from City Engineer Thomas DiPersio, after Public Service Chair Donald Landers asked colleagues to suspend the rules and act the same night. An $80,436 Executive Office of Elder Affairs grant to the Council on Aging was also approved 11-0, and a special permit modification adding kitchenettes to 64 rooms at 880 Donald Lynch Boulevard was referred to Urban Affairs.