AUBURN — The city will do a May curbside collections of special bulky waste, thanks to some Facebook lobbying of at least two councilors.

Councilors voted 4-2 to redirect some of the money left from the mild winter’s snowplowing budget to do spring cleanup collections.

Councilors Joshua Shea and Mary Lafontaine said they polled some of their friends on Facebook.

“It was pretty clear,” Shea said. “Of the residents that responded, 21 said yes and 5 said no and that’s more than 80 percent. I believe in representative government and it’s my responsibility to do what taxpayers want. If they want to spend their tax money on this, I respect that.”

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

The mild winter has left the city as much as $200,000 in the snowplowing, salt and sand budget that can be redirected to pay for the collections.

Not everyone agreed. Councilor Belinda Gerry said it was wise to hold onto that snowplow savings until the city knows how much revenue sharing and school aid it can expect from the state.

“If the state gives us less than we were counting on, we have a fallback,” Gerry said.

Councilor Leroy Walker said he wanted a more full accounting of cleanup costs, including costs of redirecting Public Works trucks and crews from other tasks to collect the bulky waste.

But a majority favored the collections.

“My fear is that anything that comes before us could be put on hold until we have those numbers from Augusta,” Shea said. “We can’t cripple our government waiting to see what happens. I think we have to continue on without knowing those numbers yet.”

[email protected]