AUBURN — The city might have enough money to pay for spring cleanup curbside collections this May, if the winter continues being mild.

Denis D’Auteuil, deputy public works director, said he’ll present a plan to city councilors Monday to pay for cleanup collections with money left from the city’s snowplowing budget.

“Even though we haven’t had a lot of snow, we have had snow events,” D’Auteuil said. “We’ve had 15 events, but they haven’t been long storms, and I think that’s what’s been saving us.”

D’Auteuil said the city had spent about $79,000 of its $138,000 winter overtime budget and about $161,000 of its $264,000 salt budget as of Wednesday.

“Plus, we haven’t had to do any snow removal work, because it all melted away,” D’Auteuil said. “So that’s another area where we’ve been saving.”

Forecasters were predicting another storm to come through Maine Thursday, dropping between 4 and 8 inches of snow.

“We have six weeks more winter to go, so we will definitely spend more,” he said. “But we don’t think it will go up dramatically.”

D’Auteuil said the City Council did not budget for spring cleanup collections when they adopted the current year’s budget last spring. He estimated the collections would cost the city between $45,000 and $50,000 in disposal costs and tipping fees.

“The idea last year was that we’d review it each year,” he said. “If we had a mild winter, we could go ahead and do it. But if we had a hard winter, it was a place we could cut.”

The city initially canceled the annual collections in 2010 but later brought it back, charging a $20 fee for people who wanted to have bulky items picked up.

Free collections returned in 2011. The city collected wood waste, brush and branches, furniture, rugs, mattresses, small appliances, metal waste, washers, dryers and small appliances. 

The program ran for two weeks in May last year.

D’Auteuil said he’d expect a similar program this spring, if that’s what councilors want.

“I’m just going in looking for guidance,” he said. “I have no plans now until I hear from the City Council. Once I have their temperature, we can make some plans.”

[email protected]