Cranberry Highway will soon be a little bit cleaner.

Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday night to shut down a controversial junk yard in East Wareham. Selectmen denied Charles Lewis, who owned junkyards at 3178 and 3245 Cranberry Highway, a junk dealer license for his operation at 3178 Cranberry Highway. They did grant him a license at 3245 Cranberry Highway near the bridge to Buzzards Bay.

Lewis came before Selectmen Tuesday to legalize his operations, after apparently operating without a license for quite some time.

"When I purchased the property, to my knowledge, the license and everything was above board," said Lewis, who purchased the property at 3178 Cranberry Highway, across from Olson's Garden Center, after he saw a loss of revenue at his other location due to bridge construction.

Lewis said he believed his auctioneer license served as a catch-all for his junk yard operation, but Selectman Steve Holmes disagreed. He said that Lewis was operating under the assumption he had the correct licenses.

"I think you know what licenses you're supposed to have there. You're an experienced person," said Holmes. "This business has been running illegally."

Holmes took issue with large amounts of garbage that was dumped in the junkyard. He said Board of Health agent Robert Ethier was at the site multiple times over the past six months, and told Lewis to clean up his property to no avail.

Lewis and Holmes also debated whether or not Lewis continued operating his business after Wareham Police officers issued a cease and desist order at his 3178 Cranberry Highway location.

"This [location] has been an embarrassment to the town," said Holmes. "My mission in life is to stop the junk on Cranberry Highway. If anybody is operating the way you've been operating with no license and full knowledge about it, I'm looking for them to go home too."

Lewis said that as of Tuesday, all of the trash had been cleared away and all of his fees had been paid to the town.

Alan Slavin said the town has a bylaw that only allows for five licensed junk dealers in town. Since there are already four, Selectmen could only approve a license for one of the locations.

Selectmen granted Lewis a junk dealer license at 3245 Cranberry Highway under the following conditions:

• No vehicles or boats are allowed to be stored or sold on the property.
• Sales and goods must be made and kept indoors.

Holmes said that broken down vehicles are an eyesore and selling goods outdoors is what caused trouble at Lewis' other location.

Town Attorney Richard Bowen said a junk dealer's license "may be revoked at the pleasure" of the Selectmen.

"The conditions this board sets in connection with any license have to be followed to the letter," Selectman Peter Teitelbaum said to Lewis. "You're going to be on an extremely short leash."