When pilots fuel up at Wiscasset Municipal Airport now and they pay via credit card, they are using a new $15,000 cellular system. The airport got a $4,500 break off that price by making the two-month window, and for already being a customer of QT Petroleum, the firm that called for the change, Airport Manager Rick Tetrev said.

The airport budget covered it, Tetrev said.

The system completes the sale instaneously, so buyers will no longer have to wait, as they did with the pre-2002 system that used telephone lines, he told the Airport Advisory Committee June 20. "It was antiquated." The company no longer wanted to maintain it, he said. The airport will pay QT Petroleum about $400 a year for Verizon service to process card payments, Tetrev said.

Members fell short of a quorum, so the meeting became a workshop.

A quicker transaction will be nice, pilot and committee chairman Steve Williams said. The wait used to be so long, he would do other tasks.

Tetrev announced Andrea Williams, a schoolteacher from the New York City area, is taking his old part-time job of airport supervisor for the summer. It pays $12 an hour. Tetrev said he and Williams will take CPR and other training June 28 at Wiscasset Community Center.

Williams noted he has joined Maine Department of Transportation's RFP, or request for proposals, committee. He said it advises MDOT on the order projects should get done at airports around the state.

Williams said wife and fellow pilot Lisa Reece suggested he join. He added, Reece also recently helped get this year's 2,600 mile-plus, women's handicap race, the Air Race Classic, to end at Eastern Slopes Regional Airport in Fryeburg June 22.

The panel put off reviewing its draft of airport rules. Williams said member Ervin Deck has been working on it. The committee meets next at 5 p.m. July 18 at the airport.