By Janet Stoica

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The former LaPlante Brothers site on Worcester Road that sits across from the paintball amusement center between Pinehurst Drive and Tanner Road is finally getting the cleanup it has deserved after many decades of neglect. The eyesore has exhibited junk trailers and other detritus for years and years and the new property owner, Lamuscio Trucking LLC, and Webster’s Conservation Agent Joseph Wigglesworth have embarked on a mutually agreeable clean-up plan with the town of Webster. 

The trucking company’s attorney, David Dupont, has submitted plans that include selling off all remaining junk scrap with no intention of bringing in any of same. Lomuscio Trucking applied for a junk permit to allow it to sell off all the existing junk and any other scrap metal. The five-phase plan includes language indicating which parts of the junk property will be cleaned and in what order. It is estimated that each phase will be completed in three to four months beginning with phase one and will continue until all five phases have been concluded. Mr. Dupont has stated that since the ground usually is frozen through the month of March, no clean-up activities would be done until a thaw. Goals are to view and remove junk and scrap from the stream bed and vegetation within 25 feet of the stream bed and to move those items back about 25 feet. Work would be done during dry periods and efforts taken to minimize impact to vegetation within the 25-foot zone. Much of the junk metal has never been cleaned for decades with vegetation growing around and through the debris. All existing junk metal will be cleaned out from the stream bed and surrounding vegetation. Unfortunately, the need to cut vegetation is inevitable since none of the junk metal has ever been removed and has been discarded into the undergrowth in the area for many years. Straw wattles and hay bales will be used extensively to minimize further damage to the wetlands to prevent further erosion. Clean-up work will expand toward Worcester Road and all residential properties abutting the junkyard until restoration is completed. 

Ongoing walk-throughs with Wigglesworth will occur at regular monthly intervals with the understanding that once the junk metal has been removed and the area has been restored to its natural state the Conservation Agent will approve the final restoration.