A scrap metal business that has operated in Hancock for years appears to have closed down, as town residents have discovered.

A visit to the Universal Contractors location on Hess Road found the office closed and the recycling center site largely empty. A call to the company’s local phone number found the number was disconnected.

Universal Contractors leases the land for their metal recycling business from the Town of Hancock. Hancock officials were not able to provide an update about the status of the business.

Universal Contractors has been under notice from the Maryland Department of the Environment that their facility was in “Significant Noncompliance” of the state’s Solid Waste laws, according to public documents in the Land and Materials Administration records.

In December of 2025, an MDE inspector made an unannounced visit to the site “to check status of violations as outlined in previous reports and issued site complaints.” The MDE inspection report lists ongoing violations of environmental regulations, including scattered litter, oil and fluids contaminating the ground, evidence of oil leakage and oil sheens, a stormwater pond containing suspended layers of material, discarded pallets and tires and oil-contaminated debris.

According to the MDE inspection report, no major cleanup efforts were visible to the state environmental official since their prior inspection in August of 2024.

Inspectors reported that the Hancock facility was “out of compliance” with rules prohibiting the operation of an open dump as it had accumulated solid waste in violation of their permit.

State environmental officials said they did not yet have a cleanup plan with a timeline for the solid waste facility.