COEUR d'ALENE - The decision to take over East Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive will have to wait another day.

Following a two-hour workshop on the road offer the Idaho Transportation Department pitched to the city of Coeur d'Alene, an answer might not come for two more weeks yet.

Until June 4, likely.

That's when the issue that was pitched last year will go before the City Council.

"This is not: 'Give it to Coeur d'Alene just because,'" said Jim Coleman, vice president for the Idaho Transportation Board, on the state wanting to unload the former highway because it no longer wants to maintain the dead-end, pedestrian-friendly road. "We're doing this across the state because it does not fit the department's mission."

The offer also comes with $3 million from ITD.

City department heads believe they can maintain the 5.2 mile stretch of windy, scenic road for around $30,000 a year. Public water access improvements could be made along the waterfront and adjacent Centennial Trail, according to Parks Director Doug Eastwood, giving the city an opportunity to secure beach front property at a minimal cost.

A deal for a boat launch could still happen sometime in the future at Silver Beach, he said, but the trees along much of the road are in dire need of replacing, so the urban forestry team would take on a plan to replace them if the city takes the deal.

"If you were the land owner you would take a harder look, a deeper look, at those opportunities," he said.

Some neighbors are opposed to the transfer.

They said the public already enjoys the land so access doesn't need or can't be improved. A bevy of easements across the 149 parcels of land creates ownership headaches and the fear of being annexed into the city. Also, they doubt the city can maintain the road for the costs it says, so it would be a financial sinkhole that won't generate revenues and could reduce services, like plowing.

"I think it's worse than a pitfall," said Jim Irving, Silver Beach Road resident, against the ownership transfer. "I think it's just plain stupid."

Judy Nixon, who also lives by Silver Beach, said she opposes public fishing docks the city's parks department said could be a part of public improvements.

"There's alreadyaccess out there," she said of public use in the area. "Where are you going to park then?"

The state offered the city the deal as the city was looking for a replacement boat launch site for the Third Street Boat Launch. The Third Street launch was originally going to be removed with the McEuen Park reconstruction project. The boat launch remained in the downtown park project, making a replacement site unnecessary, but the state held firm on the offer anyway.

For some, however, the whole issue continues to be tied to McEuen Park.

City Councilman Dan Gookin, who said he's probably going to vote against it, told Nixon after the meeting that the city is considering the deal for the money "because $3 million will go into that pit," referring to McEuen Park.

A postcard mailed to nearby property owners notifying them of the issue asked: "What will the City do with the $3,000,000?"

"That would be my guess," Gookin said when asked if he thought the city would use the money for McEuen Park. "It would not surprise me."

The city would be free to do with the money what it pleases. Previous city discussions suggested the city set aside all or some of the money as a road endowment. That could also be decided June 4.

Mayor Sandi Bloem said the council has a lot to consider before it decides, but making a decision based on rumors would be irresponsible.

"There is absolutely no discussion that I am aware of at all, that any of that money would go into McEuen," she said. "It saddens me that the decision on this, either way, is not made on fact but on innuendo."

Annexation is another rumor that needs to be dispelled, she said. The city doesn't have plans to annex nearby properties, only the road and the nearby property to the water.

Coleman said the state could also look to unload land it owns around the road in the future. The first ones the state would reach out to in that case would be neighboring owners.