AUBURN — Despite the weekend snowstorms, there’s still room in the city’s budget to pay for spring cleanup collections, if councilors want them.

Acting City Manager Don Gerrish said the mild 2011-12 winter has left the city with as much as $200,000 in the snowplowing, salt and sand budget. That didn’t change much with this past weekend’s storms, he said.

Councilors can redirect some of that money into bulky items collections May 7 through 18.

Councilors said they want more details. They’re tentatively scheduled to discuss it at a workshop meeting March 12. They could vote on it at their next regular meeting March 19.

Ward 5 Councilor Leroy Walker said he favored charging a small fee for the collections, which the city did in 2010.

“I’m just not sure that every taxpayer should pay for all of us to throw their trash away if they’re not going to do it,” Walker said.

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

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.

“If we can’t afford to do a full cleanup, maybe we can do a hybrid,” Councilor Belinda Gerry said. “Maybe we could just waive fees to let people bring stuff to (Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp.’s trash-to-energy plant).”

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