AUBURN – Councilors on Monday got a plan to repair all of the city’s streets, but it would cost at least $5 million per year.

Councilors got their first look at a five-year spending plan for capital projects, projected through 2012. The plan calls for $14.2 million in spending right away, in the 2008 budget. That’s twice what the council budgeted last year.

Much of that is for road repairs, according to City Manager Pat Finnigan. Street conditions citywide were a major topic of each ward meeting councilors held this winter.

“So staff has prepared a plan to increase spending on the roads,” she said. “But it will ultimately be a policy decision made by the City Council.

About one-third of the city’s 147 miles of maintainable roads are in poor condition, according to Community Services Director Eric Labelle. City policy in the past few years has been to spend most of its road budget on good roads, keeping them in shape.

“That’s where we get the biggest bang for our buck,” said Public Works Director Bob Belz. With limited money spent on reclaiming poor roads, the overall condition of roads citywide improved slowly.

The new plan would earmark about $15 million over the next five years on the worst 19 miles of road, setting aside another $9 million to maintain roads already in decent shape.

Laurie Smith, assistant city manager, pointed out that Monday’s list was only staff requests.

“This just establishes need,” Smith said. “It’s just a wish list at this point.”

Councilors will begin actual work on the entire budget in the next few weeks, accepting some items and cutting others. They’ll also have to decide how to pay for the projects they decided to keep.

Other big ticket items in the 2008 capital plan include replacing Fire Engine No. 5. Deputy fire Chief Ray Lafrance said that firetruck is out of service and has been replaced by the refurbished Engine No. 3.

“Engine 5 is dead, sitting in Westbrook right now,” he said. The truck’s engine failed, and structural problems would make repairs too expensive. A replacement truck would cost $650,000.

Councilors were skeptical of some ideas. One $30,000 budget line item would pay for new commercial grade dishwashers and clothes washers and dryers for all three Auburn fire stations.

“We don’t want people bringing things home that could be contaminated with possibly hazardous materials,” Lafrance said. Those could include blood stains from rescues, or chemicals from fires.

But Councilor Ray Berube thought the city could find a better deal.

“Just look at Sears,” he said. “Even their top-of-the-line washers and dryers don’t cost more than a $1,000 apiece.”

Lafrance said the budget included electrical and plumbing work for each station, in addition to purchasing the appliances.