It'll Take Millions - and New Security - to Reopen Lady Liberty

TBO ^ | 11/8/03 | Verena Dobnik

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

NEW YORK (AP) - A nonprofit group is looking for private donations to fund security improvements needed to reopen the Statue of Liberty, off-limits to the public since the Sept. 11 attacks. The federal government already has spent millions of dollars on upgrades, but about $5 million worth of security measures still are needed before visitors can go inside the 151-foot-high statue, National Park Service spokesman Brian Feeney said.

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which oversaw Lady Liberty's restoration in the 1980s, offered to help raise the funds, Feeney said.

The Statue of Liberty National Monument, a 58-acre island in New York Harbor, was closed to the public immediately after the attacks. Threats to destroy the statue prompted increased government boat and air patrols.

The island was reopened in December 2001, after airport-type metal detectors were installed to screen visitors before they board the ferry for the island from lower Manhattan.

Tourists still can't climb the statue, and the number of visitors to the monument has dropped by about half to about 2.5 million a year.

Planned upgrades include fire and emergency notification systems and more exits from the monument.

The coffee-maker Folgers has pledged some of the first dollars for the fund-raising campaign, launched in September.

Folgers last month began running ads offering to contribute $1 for every seal customers mail in from its new red plastic coffee canisters. At least 2 million canisters are now in circulation.

Foundation spokeswoman Peg Zitko said another major company will join the fund-raising effort for Lady Liberty. She said it's too early to say how much money has been raised by the "Re-Open Lady Liberty" campaign.

No timetable is in place for reopening the statue, Feeney said. Once the needed security improvements are made, he said, the Park Service will ask Interior Secretary Gale Norton for permission to open the statue to visitors.

[Tax-chick]

I wouldn't contribute unless they SWORE to search young Middle Eastern men with smoke coming out their pants legs, instead of 90-year-old Jewish grandmothers in wheelchairs.

I thought every in America more than 4 ft. off the ground was closed because of personal-injury lawsuits, anyway.

[Endeavor]

I hate to break it to you, but muslim extremists come in all colors these days.

Nonetheless, you have a point.

[Endeavor]

I hate to break it to you, but muslim extremists come in all colors these days.

Nonetheless, you have a point.

[spookycc]

I've visited Liberty Island twice since 9/11, and the last time, "she" just didn't feel as special to me as she did right after 9/11. It's a french thing, I know...

[oh8eleven]

I wouldn't contribute unless they SWORE to search young Middle Eastern men with smoke coming out their pants legs, instead of 90-year-old Jewish grandmothers in wheelchairs.

Or 87 year old Marine Corps Medal of Honor winners like Joe Foss.

[Tax-chick]

Pictures of the 90-year-old Bubbe from Queens who's trying to blow up the Statue of Liberty? :-)

But seriously, I'm furious that we're spending all this tax money on the TSA and not taking the OBVIOUS precautions, out of pure moral cowardice. I'd rather the Statue remained closed than waste money on unproductive, rather than productive, security. And my old Pop from Londonderry would have said the same thing - only he was thinking of IRA terrorists, so security would have focussed on ... guys who looked like him!

[Greybird]

It's a [F]rench thing, I know ...

Yeah, and I'll bet you puke your guts up whenever you go through one of the many American cities named Lafayette. That French bum. Thought he could get some cheap glory by bumming around General Washington, didn't he? {/sarcasm OFF}

When it comes to Bartholdi's magnificent "Liberty Enlightening the World," such French-bashing has to STOP.

[DLfromthedesert]

This is so sad. That was my favorite field trip when I was growing up on Long Island.

[joesnuffy]

Send it back to France
Let them take the huddled masses yearning to blow up buildings

[spookycc]

Wow - over-react much? ;-P