PIERRE (CNS) – PIERRE (CNS) – The Senate passed three bills Feb. 11 that will add new property and buildings to the campus of South Dakota State University.

House Bill 1028 allows the Board of Regents to accept the donation of a swine nursery valued at $25,000 that the Department of Animal and Range Sciences will use to study swine nursery production. The university only will pay for infrastructure needed once the building is moved to campus. Funding for those improvements will come from grant money held by the department.

“The request is for up to $30,000,” State Sen. Mike Jaspers, R-Sioux Falls, said. “But no money would be taken from the general fund for the project.”

The Senate passed that bill 32-2.

House Bill 1029 allows the Board of Regents to construct two new storage buildings at SDSU at an estimated cost of $600,000. The buildings will provide a storage space for dorms, the Agricultural Heritage Museum and a mobile unit used for the Ethel Austin Martin Program on Human Nutrition.

The Senate passed that bill 32-2.

House Bill 1030 allows the BOR to purchase two pieces of property near the corner of 12th Avenue and 8th Street currently held by the State College Development Association and SDSU Foundation on behalf of SDSU pending legislative approval. Both properties are on the university’s 10-year plan for defining campus boundaries.

“Property like this only comes up for sale once in a long, long time,” State Sen. Mike Jaspers, R-Sioux Falls, said. He said the properties are in good shape, and the land would greatly improve the university’s long-term plans for expanding campus.

The Senate passed that bill 29-4.

The bills now go to the governor for consideration.