MONROE - The City of Monroe Senior Center Board is looking for ways to keep the unused revenues its senior volunteers raise through fundraising activities out of the city's general coffers at the end of each year.

Budgeted money not spent by city departments by the end of each year is normally tossed back into the general fund. Department heads often ask the Common Council to roll over some money to the next year, usually to cover projects that were begun one year but finished in the following year.

The Senior Center does not have a city budget and received no taxpayers' money, but rather, operates on a Senior Center account or a fund raising account.

Since 1996, the seniors have raised more than a million dollars through fundraisers and donations.

With that money, they have done some major remodeling projects to their city-owned building, including a Wellness Center addition and, most recently, the front lobby renovation, as well as many smaller projects. The center is preparing to open a computer lab this year and has plans to create a coffee center next year.

"The city is asking to take the (center's) activities account and create a budget for it," said Tammy Derrickson, executive director for the center.

The problem for the center and its board will be the sudden lack of funds at the first of the year. Donations for specified purposes must be spent as designated, but the revenues raised by efforts of the seniors will seem to disappear, unless the city can find a way to segregate them.

"If the revenues disappear, we'll have to put in a budget," Derrickson said, "and ask for that from taxpayers."

According to Board President Bill Schwaiger, the municipal budget system has "no provisions for money that is donated to an entity that isn't in the budget system - only tax levied money."

"There's nothing in the regulations that covers where we are," he added.

Other city departments submit an annual budget in the fall and can expect to receive a set amount of tax dollars in the following year. Unused tax dollars are returned to the general fund.

"We don't think we can operate that way," Schwaiger said, adding that the center doesn't know what it will receive as revenues from fundraisers, classes, trips and other activities.

"With us, the activity planning process is different (than other departments)," Derrickson said. "Our schedule runs differently."

The money raised and donated to the center has stayed with the center and allows the board to operate on a short-term basis for 30 years, according to Derrickson. The center plans its spending month-to month, three months out or six months out. That process allows the center to take advantage of sudden opportunities and to save raised funds for specified goals set by the board, she added.

The board is preparing to meet with city administration officials to design a way of retaining its funds. It has postponed setting any goals for 2014, until the fund accounting is cleared up.