More people visit the Roger Williams Park Zoo than any other attraction in Rhode Island, except possibly all the Newport mansions put together. The zoo is a regional attraction, its zoological qualities acknowledged by peers at zoos around the country. And who would not want to get the polar bears back?

Several years ago, the Providence parks superintendent, Nancy Derrig, retired after a controversy involving irregular administrative methods meant to insulate the park from a municipality that regarded the zoo's admission fees as a convenient cash cow. Clearly, the zoo (and the park) are what they are now because Ms. Derrig took risks to protect them from city politics.

Today, this has changed. The city pays the Rhode Island Zoological Society to run the zoo, which no longer has much administrative contact with the city -- or with its most logical alternative parent, the state. The arrangement seems a bit too unmoored from responsible authority for so important a civic institution.

Voters are being asked to approve Question 6 on next month's ballot, under which the state would issue bonds worth $11 million (plus $8.1 million in interest). The money's disbursement would be administered by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, which would funnel it through the city bidding process into contracts to carry out the zoo-expansion program designed by the Zoological Society.

In spite of the zoo's unsettled administrative status, we support the bond issue, which would help fund its $35 million plan to upgrade existing exhibits, to create new ones and to boost its research facilities. In the works are an expanded North America exhibit, with three new polar bears in a larger exhibit (with viewing from above and below ground), an upgraded Plains of Africa exhibit, a New England trail and a veterinary hospital.

Approval of the bond issue would create momentum to give the zoo to the state, which can exert oversight and serve as a responsible parent for one of Rhode Island's -- and, indeed, southeastern New England's -- greatest treasures. So please vote yes on Question 6.