Of all the upgrades taking place on the grounds of the Tracy Municipal Airport, there’s one improvement that, while important, won’t be quite as visible.
The Tracy City Council on Monday approved a MnDOT grant for a new fuel system card reader at the facility.
The card reader works similarly to what you would see at a gas station.
The grant is for $30,000, with the City of Tracy picking up $12,000.
The current card reader was installed in 2012 and runs on a dial-up modem, which today is considered antiquated.
“We had put aside $12,000 for 2026 for a card reader … ours is outdated,” Tracy City Administrator Jeff Carpenter said Monday.
City of Tracy Public Works Director Shane Daniels said the current reader still reads magnetic stripes, not the new chip technology, which, he said, is more secure.
“For security, we’ve had this on our list for a few years now in the Capital Outlay for the airport,” Daniels said. “It’s using dial-up right now for changing fuel prices to connect to the credit card processor. Dial-ups are very few and far between.”
Daniels said telephone companies are pushing to get off copper lines in favor of the Internet.
“Eventually we’re going to be cut off,” he said. “Part of the project would be to covert everything over to ethernet that comes over the regular router.”
The plan is to have the new card reader installed in FY26. The council backed the City in pursuing the grant.
“Even though we have to sell a lot of gasoline to make up for $12,000, I think this is something that we have to have to be up-to-date,” said Councilmember Seth Schmidt, who made the motion to approve the grant; Councilmember Dave Tiegs seconded.
