A problem junk yard in North Dartmouth will no longer be allowed to operate as the Select Board voted unanimously to deny its license, citing the owner's inaction after being given repeated opportunities to clean up his act.

Director of Public Health Chris Michaud reported to the Select Board on August 27 that the owner of VACME Auto Salvage had failed to make the improvements required by the board, despite being given two sets of deadlines.

The salvage yard, located at 544 Hixville Rd., was first brought to the board’s attention in February due to environmental concerns about the condition of the property.

At the time, officials cited concerns about fluids leaking from vehicles and home heating oil tanks leaking into groundwater, especially because many of the vehicles were becoming encompassed by vegetation and many homes in the neighborhood rely on wells.

The owner of the yard was given deadlines to complete the work starting in early March and did not do so. The 90 day deadline expired and the work wasn't done, although some of the more minor work had been done. In June, the board gave a second set of deadlines to clean up the site.

Last week, an inspection of the site was performed, which found the site largely unchanged from all of the prior inspections. There are still abandoned cars with vegetation growing over them.

"In my opinion, there haven't been any efforts to comply with the directives of the Select Board," Michaud said.

Michaud acknowledged that due to a collapse in steel prices, many of the cars have little or negative value for scrap metal, but said the cars need to be removed anyway.

He said that because the material is not being kept properly to be salvaged for scrap, it is at risk of being considered dumping. Additionally, the cars are still being improperly stored, violating laws mandating cars should be stored at least 500 feet from the roadway and screened from view.

"This man has done basically nothing in all this time but stick his nose at us," Stanley Mickelson said. "We should not, not, 100 percent not give this man a license."

Due to the inaction from the property owner, the board voted unanimously to deny a license for this year and said they would not consider another application unless significant changes are made.