Milton’s infamous “Junkyard Dog,” aka Gil Rhoades, owner and operator of the unlicensed ABC Metals/Rhoades Salvage yard, is finding his leash getting shorter by the day. This afternoon, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Rhoades and his wife, Blanche, asking the court to order them to “immediately cease purchasing, accepting or otherwise receiving any junk, junk motor vehicles, scrap metal” and other refuse that constitutes the meat and ‘taters of their business. Seems the state may have finally figured out a way — sort of — to deal with the scrappy junkyard dealer who’s repeatedly and flagrantly ignored court orders and flouted the law for years by operating without a license for well over a decade.

Today’s request for injunctive relief comes just two weeks after a Chittenden Superior Court upheld the Milton Selectboard’s decision to deny Rhoades a certificate of approved location, the first step in obtaining a state license. (Rhoades has vowed to appeal that decision to the Vermont Supreme Court.) At issue for the town, among other things, is a tire pile on Rhoades’ property so massive and potentially hazardous that, according to Milton’s fire chief, if it ever caught fire, there wouldn’t be a fire department in the state that could put it out.

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Staff Writer Ken Picard is a senior staff writer at Seven Days. A Long Island, N.Y., native who moved to Vermont from Missoula, Mont., he was hired in 2002 as Seven Days’ first staff writer, to help create a news department. Ken has since won numerous...

3 replies on “Milton scrap metal yard may be finally headed to the shredder”

  1. Put leopold and kiss in a car and squash them together in a junkyard. a deserving end to to the dastardly duo. Sorry for the harsh comments but it has come to the point where it dont matter anymore.scum scum everywhere scum do this dont do that that but please worry about taxpayer concerns.

  2. Gil claims he’s in the right as he is “grandfathered” because he has been running his tire pile for so long. Does this mean that if I was taking acid in 1963 before it was made illegal I’m allowed to continue because I’m “grandfathered” How does that work anyway?A man can make the same mistake over and over for years and claim it’s experience.

  3. HI this is mike with mike’s wheel crushing if any of his tires have rims lets say half of them do 500,000 i would crush and remove those tires free of charge!

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