The City Council Tuesday approved orders to accept several City revolving funds for Fiscal Year 2018. Eleven separate revolving funds were approved for seven City departments.

A revolving fund allows a community or department to raise revenues from a specific service and use those revenues without appropriation to support the service, as defined by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. These funds must be approved by the City Council prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year in July. Expenditures from these revolving funds may only be used to cover costs related to the assigned service.

“I appreciate the City Council’s support and rapid approval as it allows for continued effective functioning of various municipal departments,” said Mayor Richard Kos.

The City Council approved the following revolving funds:

Assessors’ Photocopy Fund – This revolving fund uses fees collected from providing the public with copies of maps, plot plans, and other information concerning properties to cover the replacement costs of materials, supplies and related costs to providing these photocopies.

Council on Aging RiverMills Café – This account is used to purchase food and supplies in order to operate the RiverMills Café. The Café offers a variety of bakery items, coffee and tea, and fresh produce for our seniors on a daily basis. Sales receipts from the café are deposited back into the revolving fund.

Golf Course Advertising Costs, Driving Range, and Pro Shop Inventory – The Advertising revolving fund covers the fee schedule for ads placed through various media. The driving range revolving fund uses fees collected from the purchase of driving range tokens to cover replacement costs of supplies and other related costs associated. The cost of replacement of pro shop inventory is covered by sufficient revenues from the pro shop sales.

Library Damaged or Lost Items, Photocopy Costs, and Book Sale – The Damaged or Lost Item revolving fund is used for the replacement of books and other media, the purchase of new materials to help keep the collection current and provide additional copies of “in demand” items, and to cover the postage costs of mailing overdue notices. Library fines and charged replacement costs are deposited back into the revolving fund. The Photocopy Costs revolving fund uses revenues collected from the photocopiers to cover the costs of replacing materials and supplies associated to the library’s photocopiers, which are available for public use for a fee. The Library Book Sale revolving fund uses receipts from the sale of de-accessioned books at the Main Library and summer farmer’s market to purchase new materials and programming supplies.

Recreation Summer Day Camp – Each summer the Parks and Recreation Department operates a Camp Opee, a summer day camp that provides children with recreation, arts and crafts, music and drama, nature activities, and other events. Fees collected to attend the camp are deposited into the revolving fund, which is used to pay the expenses related to operating the program.

Board of Registrar of Voters Passport Services – This account is used to cover the replacement costs of materials and supplies for providing the public with passport services, including processing and mailing applications and passport photos. Fees collected are credited to the revolving fund to cover these supplies.

School Department Vocational Technical Carpentry Program – The vocational carpentry program utilizes their revolving fund to purchase land, material, and supplies for their house-building program and other construction projects. Once completed, these projects are sold and proceeds are deposited into the revolving fund for the next school year.

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