By Joan F. Simoneau, Community Reporter
Marlborough ?Sporadic power outages in several parts of the city prompted the City Council at its Dec. 5 meeting to ask for a study into the matter.
Ward 1 Councilor Joseph Delano, the chair of the council's Operations and Oversight committee, suggested the council bring together representatives from National Grid, as well as state and local officials, to discuss the outages.
“The goal will be to work collaboratively to find a quick resolution to this problem and to inform the public of the city's progress,” Delano stated in a communication to the council. “I know we have gone through a cycle of storms and that power was affected but they are still too frequent in many areas.” He cited Simpson Road, Stow Road and Bigelow Heights sections of the city as having reported problems.
Delano said he would like the committee to uncover the extent of the problem, and “to get more reliable power and do a better job of communicating the outages.”
Delano said that he and Ward 7 City Councilor Donald Landers have discussed the local situation with former Mayor Nancy Stevens, who is now the Director of Consumer Affairs for the Massachusetts Public Utilities Division. ?Stevens had indicated that she would arrange a meeting with the appropriate state officials once the situation is assessed, Delano said.
In other business, the proposed conveyance of a portion of city-owned property at 93 Framingham Rd. to Melanson Development Group, Inc. was postponed to the Dec. 17 council meeting, at the request of Ward 2 City Councilor Richard Jenkins. A public meeting has been scheduled for Dec. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall to allow area residents ?to review plans for the development and ask questions.
Melanson Development Group is seeking council permission to use a half-acre sized city-owned sewer easement as part of an open space development at the former Frank Walker home and its nearly five surrounding acres. The estate has been the topic of at least two conceptual development plans to build condominiums on the site.
