Everyone in the Inland Northwest seems to know Lake Coeur d’Alene frontage is valuable, except some local officials, past and present. It’s hard to forget Bob Haakenson’s claim when he was a Kootenai County commissioner that the location of The Coeur d’Alene Resort golf course on Lake Coeur d’Alene didn’t affect its value. At the time, county commissioners were in a three-way fight with Hagadone Hospitality and the late Assessor Tom Moore to decide the new course’s assessed value. This spring, four Coeur d’Alene City Council members failed to understand the importance of the eastern end of Sanders Beach when resort owner Duane Hagadone asked the city to annex his golf course and other lakeshore holdings. On a 4-2 vote, the council annexed the property without heeding the plea of thousands of residents and petition signers to demand that Hagadone grant perpetual public access to his 500 feet of beach in exchange for sewer and other city amenities. One council member said the city couldn’t afford to risk losing the annexation and the property tax dollars from Hagadone for a 30-by-500 feet section of substandard beach. Amazing. Fortunately, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, other agencies and other local officials realize the value of shoreline property and public access to Lake Coeur d’Alene and other Kootenai County waterways. As a result, public ownership of lakeshore property has grown from 2 percent to 5 percent in the past 12 years. Boaters enjoy new or improved launches at Blackwell Island and Higgens Point on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Naturalists relish the wildlife delights of Cougar Bay. And beachcombers can look forward to a stretch of 1,000 feet of sand along the Spokane River when an upscale waterfront subdivision is built. The visionaries responsible for these gains deserve our thanks. The work to acquire and develop waterway access, however, isn’t done. With Kootenai County’s population booming and tourists streaming in, waterway access is more important than ever. Meanwhile, the cost of that access is growing out of sight. Even tiny shoreline lots sell for a quarter of a million dollars, according to Anne Anderson, president of the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors. It’s crucial for the BLM, which deserves credit for a cooperative spirit and much of the heavy lifting in gaining public access, and other agencies to work with local government to acquire more Kootenai County shoreline for public use. The BLM and Kootenai County broke the conventional mold by agreeing to pay octogenarian John Pointner a combined $5,000 per month until he dies for 155 acres of wildlife habitat and wetlands on Cougar Bay. The agreement concluded a long struggle that saw fans of Cougar Bay stop an out-of-state developer from subdividing shoreline and attracted the Nature Conservancy’s interest. As long as waterfront land is being offered at high but reasonable prices, public agencies should use every means possible to buy it.