Council members decided to provide a site, which hasn’t been chosen yet, for residents to drop off broken tree branches and debris from last week’s snowstorm.

Council member Steve King asked the council to let city workers pick up debris from the storm residents had gathered to spare residents the cost and hassle of disposing debris themselves. King said he heard the city of Red Wing had similar plans, which prompted his idea.

Yet the city would have to spend more than $15,000 to pick up downed tree branches, not including disposal fees and associated costs, according to Public Works Director Steven Lang. Lang told the council the city wouldn’t receive grants to reimburse clean-up costs like previous storms because Austin wasn’t declared a disaster area, and thus wasn’t entitled to state or federal aid.

Lang said the city could open a site for residents to drop off tree branches, and the council agreed with the measure. City officials will move to open a site as soon as possible.