Beginning in October, renewing a driver's license becomes a little harder for residents of 17 South Dakota communities.

As part of a cost-saving restructuring, the driver licensing program will be eliminated in Deadwood, Philip, Mission, Britton Howard, Tyndall, Parkston, Salem, Freeman, Canton, Flandreau, Clark, Clear Lake, De Smet, Platte, Beresford and Wagner.

The closings have drawn criticism from at least one state legislator.

Rep. Susan Wismer, D-Britton, said many of the communities losing stations are within 30 miles of another site, so may not feel the effect as seriously as others.

For Britton residents working at a local manufacturing plant, a 45-mile drive to get a driver's license will be a hardship, Wismer said.

"The anecdotal picture of a small town resident may be that we think nothing of a 45-mile drive," Wismer said. "But the truth is that those trips are often not during work hours when driver license stations are open, to say nothing of the poor and elderly residents for whom an out-of-town trip is much more of a hardship."

Philip Mayor John Hart was disturbed when he heard Philip would lose the monthly visit by the driver licensing program until he learned that only 5 percent of his community uses the service.

"That took the sting out of it," Hart said. "I didn't realize the facility didn't get utilized that much. It was just common sense. I wish the state would do more cost-cutting."

Philip-area residents can renew standard driver's licenses almost daily at the Jackson County Courthouse in Kadoka, 21 miles southeast, or drive 30 miles west to Wall and the Pennington County's satellite office.

Licensing program director Cynthia Gerber said eliminating the 17 sites is part of a statewide restructuring that's necessary because of the higher volume of renewals across the state. Gerber has about 45 driver's license examiners to cover the whole state, and they issue about 226,000 driver's licenses and identification cards a year.

"In tough economic times, what we're trying to do is utilize our resources to the best of our abilities," Gerber said. It's not the right time to ask for more funding to hire more people, she said.

Eleven of the sites being closed were served only once a month. In Deadwood, renewals were offered once a week, and Tyndall and Wagner twice monthly. Howard was served on alternate Tuesdays and Mission four times a month.

Gerber said the cuts were made after studying the volume of traffic at the state's various sites and looking at alternative locations where people can still get their licenses. The program also considered the technical capabilities of the sites.

"In some locations, we're still on dial-up," Gerber said. "We need to go away from that, and there is a cost to implementing technology and ongoing costs to maintain that technology."

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com.