By SARAH ROBERTSON
Staff Writer
ATHOL — The Athol Select Board may not renew a Class II business license for the Victory Lane Motor Sales used car dealership next year, citing violations to state motor vehicle sales laws.
In a Dec. 10 letter to Victory Lane Motor Sales owners Robert and Sheila Hamilton, town manager Shaun Suhoski described the violations reported to him by the State Police and Registry of Motor Vehicles. Not listing the business hours of operation on the outside door, an unreported change of address, and a faulty vehicle tracking and registration system prompted the Registry of Motor Vehicles to deem Victory Lane Motor Sales “not an established place of business.”
“They’re supposed to be there to repair the vehicles because of the lemon law,” Select Board member Holly Young said at a Dec. 18 Select Board meeting. “The place looks abandoned.”
Town manager Shaun Suhoski requested that Victory Lane Motor Sales’ license to sell used vehicles be revoked, and their application to renew next year’s license rejected due to the violations. The Select Board deliberated on Dec. 18 and agreed to extend Victory Lane Motor Sales’ business license until Jan. 15, allowing the business to sell the remaining vehicles.
Kevin Gabrenas, a manager with Victory Lane Motor Sales, said the company is willing to work to correct the violations.
“We’re trying to do it right,” Gabrenas said. “It’s not like we’re trying to run and hide from everybody.”
The Board also instructed Victory Lane not to acquire any new vehicles. The dealership currently has five used cars left to sell, including one Ford Focus that recently had the tires stolen off it.
The initial reason for the investigation into Victory Lane Motor Sales’ business practices was a disgruntled customer who bought a car that could not be legally registered.
“We had a big liquidation sale, a man bought five cars from us and one of them wasn’t titled right,” said Gabrenas.
On December 3, Suhoski spoke with a representative from the RMV, Antonio Desisto, “…he expressed concern that you may not be operating as a bona fide dealer with an established place of business, open to the public and that keeps regular hours so that consumers have recourse,” Suhoski wrote in the letter to the Hamiltons. “He requested a clear date for liquidation of the assets if you are no longer in lawful operation.”
In November a Massachusetts State Trooper Eugene Lawrence also reported to the town that repairs to salvage titled automobiles for Victory Lane Motor Sales were being conducted off-site at a non-licensed premises. The officer confiscated the business’s repair plates, leaving them unable to service more vehicles. In the meantime Aaron’s Automotive in Orange will provide service to Victory Lane customers, Gabrenas said.
Soon after the Select Board approved a host community agreement for the recreational marijuana facility, Blue Jay Botanicals at the same 22 Chestnut Hill Ave. property, pending the sale of the building to Mass Grow LLC. Cindy and Chuck Hartwell, the prospective owners of the pot shop, say they intend to purchase the former used car lot and building from the Hamiltons once they receive a retail license from the state.
“We’ve applied for the license, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be the ones behind the counters,” Cindy Hartwell said at the Dec. 18 Select Board meeting.
However, Gabrenas said the sale is not a done deal. Regardless of whether Victory Lane continues to sell used cars, the company still plans to operate their towing business, Gabrenas said.
“There is a chance we move the business but everything is up in the air,” Gabrenas said. “There is no purchase of sale on the building.”
Mass Grow plans to build a large scale cannabis cultivation facility inside the neighboring former L.P. Athol Corporation building, and is poised to be the second largest business in town after the L.S. Starrett Company. Between $18 and $20 million in renovations and construction are planned for the 360,000-square-foot complex. If the sale goes through, Mass Grow will serve as a landlord to the Hartwells and Blue Jay Botanicals.
“Cindy and Chuck are well known to the community,” Suhoski said at the Dec. 18 meeting. Cindy Hartwell is the daughter of former L.P. Athol Corporation owner Vincent “Bill” Purple, who sold the warehouse building to Mass Grow LLC earlier this year.
Blue Jay Botanicals would be the second and final pot shop allowed in town, per Athol’s zoning bylaws that limit the total number of cannabis retailers to 20 percent of liquor stores. According to town documents, the shop would make annual payments to the town of up to $275,000 depending on sales.
A public hearing for Blue Jay Botanicals special permit application will continue before the Board of Planning and Community Development on Jan. 2.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@atholdailynews.com