AUBURN — The city will collect large household waste curbside some time this May.

“It is in the budget, so we are planning to go ahead with it,” City Manager Glenn Aho said. “We might not do it every year, but it is a service that people feel strongly about.”

Aho said the collections will be similar to those in the past, but residents will be asked to register for the collections.

“To do this efficiently, we can’t have our crews driving back and forth hopscotching around the city,” Aho said. “We need to know where the collections are going to be and arrange for them. Plus, it allows us to communicate back. If we run behind schedule, we’ll be able to send an email to people alerting them.”

The city, faced with budget concerns, canceled the spring collections in 2010.

“The City Council had just issued the challenge to cut the budget, and we needed to save on costs and revenues,” Aho said.

They brought it back in May, charging residents a $20 fee to have their trash collected.

Aho said Public Works staff were still working to determine the exact dates of the collections and other details. He said he expects the collections will cost the city up to $46,000 in the current, 2010-11 fiscal year budget.

“But that depends on what people leave,” Aho said. “There were doubts we were going to have spring cleanup last year, so people might have things left over. Then again, people tend to throw out less in a down economy. But no matter what, we think $46,000 should cover it.”

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