Photo courtesy of Stacy Neubeck Pharmacy technician coordinator Rachel Bass prepares to enter the sterile compounding area in the Avera Marshall Medical Center pharmacy. Avera Health plans to bond to help finance a project to move the pharmacy to the hospital’s first floor.

MARSHALL — The city of Marshall will be holding a public hearing this month on a bonding issue that will affect Avera Marshall Medical Center. But even though the city is holding the hearing, Marshall won’t be taking on any debt.

The Avera Health system is seeking a total of $465 million in revenue bonds from the South Dakota Health and Educational Facilities Authority. Because $3 million of those bonding dollars will be used to finance a renovation project at Avera Marshall Medical Center, the city is being asked to hold a hearing.

Marshall City Council members voted to set a hearing on the bond issue at 5:30 p.m. on March 12.

The bond funding will be used to help relocate the Avera Marshall pharmacy from the hospital’s third floor down to the first floor, said Avera Marshall communications partner Stacy Neubeck. Neubeck said the move will bring the pharmacy closer to departments like the Avera Cancer Institute, and make it easier to transport medications like chemotherapy drugs to patients.

A resolution calling for a hearing on the bonding issue was part of the consent agenda at Tuesday’s Marshall City Council meeting.

According to the resolution brought before the council, the South Dakota Health and Educational Facilities Authority would be issuing revenue bonds with a principal amount of $465 million, to finance facilities projects in South Dakota and Minnesota. Of that total amount, no more than $3 million would be used to finance a renovation project at Avera Marshall.

Because the project is located in Marshall, the city is being asked to hold a hearing on the revenue bonds and provide “host approval” for the bonds. The hearing and approval are required by the Internal Revenue Code, Marshall Director of Administrative Services E.J. Moberg said this week.

The city of Marshall will not be issuing the bonds, and the bonds won’t be a debt or liability to the city, the resolution said.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, council member Steven Meister asked that the hearing resolution be pulled from the consent agenda. Meister said he wanted to abstain from voting on the resolution as an Avera employee.

The council approved the hearing resolution, with one abstention from Meister.