A traffic citation: $100.

Cruelty to animals: $50 to $750.

A credit card system at the Mercer County District Justice offices to pay those fines: priceless.

Mercer County officials have been working for more than two years to implement just such a system and are awaiting final approval from the Administration of Pennsylvania Courts, which oversees DJ offices across the commonwealth, to begin utilizing it.

Some county officials believe the program's implementation will be cost-effective and prove invaluable to the county.

"The benefit of this is people will be able to pay their fines in full if they have a credit card, whereby sometimes they don't have the cash available to pay it," Mercer County Treasurer Ginny Steese Richardson said Wednesday. "So we'll get money quicker and it will get their case settled quicker, too."

Commissioner Kenneth A. Seamans agreed.

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