Management of the Family Dollar Store at 137 Marion Road has been fined by the Wareham Board of Health after failing to keep a clean store and for disregarding previous warnings from the town’s health agent.

On Wednesday, July 18, Francisca Perdomo of Family Dollar appeared before the board alongside attorney Carolyn Miller who represented the discounted goods chain.

Board members handed out a $300 fine and Health Agent Robert Ethier will reinspect the store in 30 days. If the store doesn’t pass inspection its license to operate “will be in jeopardy,” according to Board of Health member Dr. Thomas Gleason.

Ethier recommended the health board request that Selectmen suspend its license to sell if the changes aren’t made because Family Dollar Store upper management ignored his requests to clean the store.

“I feel there’s a reluctance to adhere to the health code,” said Ethier. “It’s not acceptable to have a business looking like this in the Town of Wareham…This is not reasonable, this is gross.”

Officials said the Health Department received at least four phone calls complaining about the store about a month ago. On June 13, Ethier inspected the store and found it in a “state of disarray” along with dirty floors. Ethier noted the store has been warned about the floors in the past. The store was fined $150 in 2009 for a similar violation.

Because the store has a retail food permit, meaning food is sold but not prepared on site, it’s subject to Board of Health inspections.

“If this were a restaurant and the conditions were the same they wouldn’t be able to operate,” said Ethier.

Miller said her client wanted to work with the board on the issue.

“Family Dollar Store doesn’t want there to be concerns about the cleanliness of their store,” she said.