With a disappointingly  low turn out for junk dealer license applications, Selectmen turned to media outlets to get the word out about the licenses.

“Selectman Slavin and I, at one point, estimated there were probably 60 plus businesses of this type in this town,” said Selectman Peter Teitelbaum during the board's Tuesday night meeting. “We had a deadline last week. We got a whopping seven applications.”

The revised Junk Dealer bylaw was passed in the fall Town Meeting. According to Teitelbaum, before the regulation passed, Selectmen were only allowed to administer five licenses. The new regulation allows the Selectmen to issue as many licenses as needed.

Selectman Alan Slavin clarified the wide jurisdiction of the regulation, stating that the license applies to secondhand businesses as well.

“If you use the word secondhand, it covers a wide range of businesses that take items of trade and resell them,” he said.

According to Slavin, this includes selling used goods as well as refurbished goods.

Junk dealer and flea market licenses have been set at $150 annually, a vote that was passed by Selectmen in March. The recommended fine for non-compliance was set at $100 a day.

The newly-elected Chair Judith Whiteside warned those in need of this type of license that the process is a serious undertaking.

“You actually have to have inspections,” she said. “It is not a five second application.”

Teitelbaum explained that in the first several months of this regulation taking place, the town will be seeking cooperation rather than reinforcing the regulation heavy-handedly.

“This is something that has been in the works for a while and we do intend to be consistent in the application of the law,” said Whiteside.