GC Council approves debit/credit card system for city

GRUNDY CENTER - For those who habitually forget to carry cash on them, there’s good news: the City of Grundy Center recently approved a contract with Interactive Iowa Inc. for a debit/credit card system for the city.
The new system, which was approved at Monday night’s city council meeting, has the potential to be used for various different purposes, whether it’s paying for overdue books or printing costs at the library, paying a parking ticket at city hall, paying for recreation registration online, or buying season passes at the pool.
The system was initially requested by Lindsey Engelkes, director of the Kling Memorial Library, as a way to make it easier for citizens to pay their library fees.
“We get requests at library quite often from people wanting to use debit cards,” Engelkes said. “Some of the reasons people are asking to use cards is to pay for late fines, printing, faxing, and interlibrary loans. A lot of people walk in to the library, and maybe they decide to check out book, but they realize they have a fine, but we don’t take debit cards so people either have to go to an ATM or come back later with cash.”
“We’re hoping to bring the library into the 21st century so people can use their debit or credit card either online through the library’s website, or in the library, with a swipe machine,” Engelkes continued. “I think a lot more people would use the [debit/credit card] option too, if it were available to them, and I think it might help with the revenue source of the library, too.”
For the full story, see the November 23 edition of The Grundy Register.