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.