The Jefferson County Highway Department is stepping in to help with cleaning up the former Ogilvie Foods factory site on North Pleasant Street, where a housing development might be built.

Highway Superintendent James L. Lawrence Jr. said the county's highway department has agreed to haul away the rock that covers most of the site, sandwiched in between North Pleasant Street and California Avenue. Using an excavator and a bulldozer, the department will remove "shot rock" — rock blasted from local quarries used to cover the remains and foundation of the former plant — at no cost to the city, he said.

Neighbors of Watertown Inc. wants to build about 18 single-family houses on the vacant lot that neighbors have described as an eyesore. When the project was proposed two weeks ago, city officials said that the rocks that litter the site would cause a problem in developing it and that they hoped to find someone who could use the material, saying it would cost an estimated $10,000 to get rid of it.

"It's a wash for us," Mr. Lawrence said, adding his department plans to use it for road reconstruction and other projects.

The Highway Department may crush the pieces of rock or just use it as is for the base of new roads. A crew was expected to start removing the rock Tuesday, Mr. Lawrence said.

City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said that she's relieved the varying sized rocks soon will be gone because it will make it easier for other site work to be completed there.

A $200,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency will be used to remove petroleum-laced soil and other possible contaminants at the site.

Work could begin as soon as summer, depending on how quickly state funding can be found. The City Council informally endorsed the project, and council members have promised that the city will do whatever it can to develop it.