DEADWOOD, S.D. (KELO) — The South Dakota Board of Pharmacy doesn’t want to relocate its office to a different part of Sioux Falls where many other state Department of Health offices will be.

The pharmacy board, which is part of the department, voted Thursday to not participate in the move to a new building that state government is leasing in the Dawley Farm Village development.

The new complex is on the east side of Sioux Falls along Veterans Parkway, East Arrowhead Parkway and East 26th Street.

The board’s executive director, Kari Shanard-Koenders, wrote a letter to the department on September 8 proposing that the board stay in its current site at 4001 W. Valhalla Boulevard, off 49th Street, on the city’s south side.

One reason is financial: The pharmacy board doesn’t receive any general state funding from the Legislature and relies instead on licensing fees and other revenue.

“Due to the anticipated increase of an estimated 271% for the Board of Pharmacy’s rent, the Board of Pharmacy is respectfully requesting to not participate in moving its offices to the Sioux Falls One Stop building,” her letter said.

“Moving to the new site will require the BOP (Board of Pharmacy) to increase fees over and above a level with which the Legislature would be comfortable doing in 2026, to take effect in 2027, and the likelihood of needing to subsequently continue to request increases every few years,” her letter continued. “We have a bill (legislation) to introduce this year just to survive, because we are nearly in deficit spending due to being told to spend our assets down, events beyond our control, and increased costs.”

The letter went on to say that Shanard-Koenders would ask the board to vote on the matter. She addressed the situation Thursday at the board’s face-to-face meeting in Deadwood.

“It’s not my favorite thing to talk about,” she told the board. “It would be very nice, but we don’t have the amenities that we have in ours.”

The pharmacy board would share space in the new building with the state Board of Nursing, according to Shanard-Koenders, and would have less square footage than at its current site.

“We would have our own entrance, our own space,” she said about the new location. “It’s a big nice building they’re expecting everyone to want to move into.”

Bringing various state agencies into one Sioux Falls location is “not a bad idea,” said the board’s public member, Tom Nelson of Spearfish, the current president of the five-person panel. Right now, he said, “You got a whole bunch of folks running all over the city.”

Board member Dan Somsen of Yankton, the past president who will be stepping off when the governor appoints his successor, said the pharmacy office currently is set up the way the staff and board want it. “To do that all over again, would that be fiscally sound for us?” he asked.

Cheri Kraemer of Sioux Falls made the motion to not move. Curt Rising of Rapid City seconded it. The vote was taken by voice rather than roll call. Several members voted to stay in the current office. No one voted against it.