COEUR d’ALENE — A wooden sign removed from a city thoroughfare during a construction project has become a sliver of contention for committee members who want to see the sign returned prominently — and promptly.

City officials and engineers working on the Memorial Field project have picked out possible locations for the sign, but a committee responsible for the giant placard thinks its importance is underplayed, and what the sign represents is underappreciated.

“It’s appropriate to display it prominently and not put it in some secondary location,” Jeff Connaway said. “We don’t want it to be an afterthought.”

It’s more than a year since the placard that displayed the medallions of 20 local service groups such as the Kiwanis, Eagles, Shrine, Rotary and Elks clubs was removed from its spot across from the intersection of Garden Way and Northwest Boulevard.

Connaway, who sits on the city’s sign board and whose company built the sign in 1994, was concerned when it was removed as part of the Memorial Field — also called Four Corners — construction project.

“In doing so, they’re going to take away something of value from the community,” he said. “Once it gets taken down, I’m skeptical that it will be put back up.”

Since then, Connaway has waited for the return of the sign he says took four years to complete, required donations from volunteer groups and used cedar planks from the DeArmond Lumber mill, located, at the time, at the Fort Grounds.

Bill Greenwood, city parks and recreation director, said the sign has a long history in town.

When it was built almost 20 years ago under the direction of the city’s service clubs, it was supposed to be placed along Interstate 90, but the state wouldn’t allow the sign in the right of way.

After visiting alternative sites, club members eventually opted for a spot along Northwest Boulevard near Fort Grounds, where motorists heading downtown from U.S. 95 would drive under its shadow.

As part of the Four Corners construction, however, the site where the sign stood for two decades was bulldozed to make way for a road grade and parking lots. It is no longer suitable for the placard that is more than one story high and finished in rustic earth tones.

In an effort to accommodate club members, Greenwood earlier this year punched two power poles, 12 feet apart and 25 feet high, into the ground near the Coeur d’Alene carousel to hang the newly refurbished service club placard.

The location, however, was earmarked for a piece of public art, so, just like 20 years ago, a hunt was on for a new location.

“There was a conflict with the spot we chose earlier,” Greenwood said.

Lorna Wasson, who was on the original sign committee, realizes the big, wooden plaque is a relic from another time when volunteers rolled up their sleeves and worked closely with project leaders to tackle a variety of ventures city entities did not have the cash or the people power to bring to fruition.

Many of the clubs are still active, but more often grant money has taken the place of volunteerism.

“We sold buttons, made a lot of pancakes, and ate a lot of pancakes to raise money for that sign,” said Wasson, 75.

She is one of the youngest members of the local chapter of Beta Sigma Phi, an international women’s service organization, which is represented by an 18-inch disc on the roadside sign. And she is one of the youngest members of the original sign committee, she said.

The latest location tagged for the sign isn’t far from its original spot on the south side of Northwest Boulevard at the edge of a row of pines.

“We were trying to find a home for it that was suitable and that everyone agreed upon,” Greenwood said.

He anticipates the sign will go up within six months.

Wasson isn’t opposed to the spot.

“It’s very close to where it was before,” Wasson said. “That’s a positive thing.”

But Connaway isn’t so sure.

He anticipates that a contingent of people in opposition to the sign and its antiquated look may step up to put down the sign.

“Apparently there are people in town against this sign, for reasons nobody wants to say,” he said.

The sign represents hundreds of people who dig in to help out, he said.

“It’s historical to the city,” he said. “We don’t want it placed somewhere where nobody pays attention to it.”