Coeur d’Alene will have a difficult time passing a bond election for a $7 million library on the lip of its waterfront.

With the region emerging from recession, enough property owners may be reluctant to add to their property tax bill to place the two-thirds requirement to pass general obligation bonds out of reach. And that’s not the only factor that could render a bond election dead on arrival. Many residents believe the library is being proposed for the wrong location. And, most important, they remember the promise by library supporters in 2000 that they wouldn’t use public funds to construct a new building, next to City Hall.

That promise was made after Republican leaders, Concerned Businesses of North Idaho and the Kootenai County Property Owners Association joined hands to torpedo a grass-roots effort to build a $6.3 million community center. At the time, some center proponents charged that key community leaders undermined their efforts in order to preserve a pot of public money for a new library.

Times change, of course. The project has been supersized, growing from an estimated $3 million to $7 million. And the Coeur d’Alene Library Foundation realizes now it can’t fund its dream solely with private donations and grants. Before this project goes any further, Mayor Sandi Bloem and other supporters should explain why it’s worth enough to break an old promise and justify its unusual location.

Together with the urban renewal district and the library foundation, the city has hired a consultant for $20,000 to conduct focus groups and to survey 600 residents to prioritize city needs and gauge support for a bond election, possibly one for $15 million that would include new equipment for the fire department. Before they proceed, however, library advocates should revisit the decision to locate a library at a site as far from the geographic center of town as possible. When only private money was to be used to construct the library, the location wasn’t as important: You pay for it, you can build it where you want. But the same can’t be said if public money underwrites the project.

Also, supporters should explain why an easy expansion at the current, more central, location was dismissed out of hand. At the time, library supporters balked at spending $1 million to condemn or purchase “15 residences displacing relative low-income people with no place to go.” Yet, they apparently don’t have the same reservations about asking the public to spend seven times as much for a new library.

Unquestionably, Coeur d’Alene needs a new or expanded library. The existing facility on Harrison Avenue has less than 10,000 square feet, about one-fourth the size recommended for a city with Coeur d’Alene’s population. The lack of material selection and location of the current library in the older part of the town has prompted some residents in the growing northern part to use Hayden library service. Without answers, Coeur d’Alene library supporters aren’t going to get these residents to raise their taxes for a building that’s even farther away.