Liberty Enlightening the World

[Edward]

Liberty Enlightening the World (http://www.wirednewyork.com/landmarks/liberty/default.htm) and 30 Hudson Street (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/30hudson/default.htm) skyscraper on a cold January day. 12 January 2003.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/30hudson/images/30hudson_liberty_ferry_12jan03.jpg



Statue of Liberty (http://www.wirednewyork.com/landmarks/liberty/default.htm) and Staten Island Ferry. The view from Beard Street Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/brooklyn/red_hook/images/red_hook_beard_street_pier_liberty_17march02.jpg



The view on the Statue of Liberty (http://www.wirednewyork.com/landmarks/liberty/default.htm) and Ellis Island from the World Trade Center (http://www.wirednewyork.com/wtc/default.htm) Observation Deck.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/landmarks/liberty/images/statue_liberty_wtc.jpg

[amigo32]

Always nice to see the lady! :)

[NYatKNIGHT]

You can see the Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne in the last picture - where the broadcasters want to put that tower. There are two long piers extending to the edge of the photograph, it's the one on top.


(Edited by NYatKNIGHT at 5:14 pm on Jan. 20, 2003)

[Kris]

At such a location it could still disfigure the harbor if ugly.

[Fabb]

I didn't think it was so close.

[Kris]

The thing would be enormous.

[GowanusGuy]

http://www.statueofliberty.org

HELP US RE-OPEN LADY LIBERTY!
Perhaps you are not aware, but as a consequence of terrorism and concerns for public safety, the Statue of Liberty was shutdown on the morning of September 11, 2001 and is still closed to the public.

Over the following months, security for her has been significantly heightened, for her safety and the safety of the many people who would visit her, now and in the future.

A number of critical improvements need to be made to the Statue before she can reopen her doors to the public, including:

- Upgrading fire and emergency notification systems
- Creating additional exits from the Statue’s base
- Enhancing visitor safety measures throughout the Statue

The National Park Service has once again turned to The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. – the organization that was responsible for the restoration of Lady Liberty for her centennial in 1986 as well as the historic restoration of Ellis Island -- to raise the funds to get this important work accomplished.

Lady Liberty’s message of hope, freedom and dignity is truly an inspiration to us all, now more than ever.

You can help Re-Open Lady Liberty by making an online contribution today – it’s easy, secure and fully tax-deductible.

Or make a contribution by check. Mail to:

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
Department Open Liberty
292 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10017-7769


I'm a bit disgusted that they are turning to the public yet again to raise the necessary funds to renovate Lady Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty is arguably our most recognized and beloved national symbol. And yet over the years the public has been petitioned to raise money for its upkeep, indeed even had to help pay for it in the first place. Why can't the federal government find any money to pay for this? If we can afford to use the revenue generated by our taxes to buy hundreds of smart bombs or fund redundant trips to the moon I think we can easily afford a new public address system and a few new exits for the Statue of Liberty.

Alterations are needed mainly because of increased security concerns. How about giving NY its fair share of the Homeland defense fund (we can take Iowa's share :P ) and using some of that cash to pay for the improvements?

Where has the money generated by the throngs of tourists gone over the years? The tour companies? Maybe they should kick in a bit, because without access to the statue they are out of a job. (I wonder if free rides were offered to those who donated to the cause back in '86?)

Call me crazy but Im certain most people would rather see their tax dollars going to projects like this over much of where its currently going. Personally, when choosing a place to make a charitable contribution, I would prefer to give money to an organization that helps actual people who are needy. I just hope it doesn't divert too many well-intended donations that could be better used elsewhere.

(rant over.)

[BigMac]

http://www.cr.nps.gov/worldheritage/libface.gif

Of all the landmarks in New York City, the Statue of Liberty holds the most meaning for me. It punctuates the city perfectly. I have more and more respect for the monument and what it stands for as time goes by.

The Martin Scorsese documentary airing lately on the History channel is very informative; watch it if you have a chance. In addition to security enhancements, does anyone know what specific repairs (if any) will need to be performed on the statue itself? I think the last major renovation was for its centennial in 1986, and it looks to have weathered further since then.

I plan to make a donation to the fundraising campaign for the reopening effort. Each generation should take the necessary steps to ensure the statue's endurance for the next. We owe it to our history, our ideals, and our children to do so. Hopefully one day soon, we will all be able once again to ascend to her majestic crown.

[TLOZ Link5]

What an utterly cheap (or spiteful) federal government we have if they can't spare a million dollars to preserve one of the country's greatest national symbols. Of course, Bush is intent on spending 1500 times that amount of money to help "preserve" marriages.

[BigMac]

What an utterly cheap (or spiteful) federal government we have if they can't spare a million dollars to preserve one of the country's greatest national symbols.It does seem that way, but in a sense I'm glad that it is the people financing its preservation, since it is an icon for the people. Also, it suggests that we own the statue, not the government.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The Statue underwent an extenseive renovation before its centennial. The work being done now is security upgrades to the entire facility.

It's ironic that the NPS is not financing this work. I know several NPS employees at Gateway NRA, and 2 years ago I was talking to a ranger at Riis Park about environmental protection in the park. He said that most of their resources were diverted to places like the Statue of Liberty, and while he understood the security need, it was difficult to maintain the park when the staff was slashed from (as I remember it) 55 to 15.

[DougGold]

What an utterly cheap (or spiteful) federal government we have if they can't spare a million dollars to preserve one of the country's greatest national symbols. Of course, Bush is intent on spending 1500 times that amount of money to help "preserve" marriages.

No no no--nobody's stressing the real patriotic point of all this. The Statue of Liberty has never gotten a single cent from the government to cover any kind of construction costs or refurbishment costs. The French supplied the statue, but the people of America themselves came up with the money--often by donating pennies at a time--to build the base of the statue. That's the whole point--it's a symbol of the people directly and purely, with nothing inbetween!

[BigMac]

Is the statue in need of renovations beyond security enhancements (due to acid rain and/or other factors), and was its structural integrity at all affected by the WTC collapse?

[BigMac]

USA Today

Lady Liberty's stairwells may never be full again

By Rick Hampson

February 3, 2004

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2004/02/02/liberty-inside.jpg

LIBERTY ISLAND, N.Y. — They are the most beloved 354 steps in America, for they lead to a view of the nation's greatest city through the eyes of the nation's greatest symbol. But visitors have not climbed the stairs in more than two years, and they may never climb them again.

The Statue of Liberty has been closed since 9/11, longer than any time since its dedication in 1886. Although officials cite security and safety issues, they won't say exactly what they are, or just why they are dramatically different from those at other national landmarks that have reopened.

About $5 million is being raised privately for work that the National Park Service says probably will allow the monument's pedestal, which contains an immigration museum, to reopen to the public later this year. But there's also this startling possibility: The crown — accessible only by a narrow spiral staircase from the top of the statue's pedestal — might not reopen at all.

Officials say it may be too difficult to evacuate people in an emergency. Anyway, the trip to the crown "is not that vital to experiencing the statue," says Stephen Briganti, president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which raises money for the statue. "You get the same views from the top of the pedestal."

But the walk to the crown is an American tradition. "Keep the people out and you will turn the statue into an international symbol of craven fear," declared a New York Daily News editorial. Otherwise, the newspaper says, the statue will have been "ceded to al-Qaeda."
Ken Burns, creator of a documentary film about the statue, says "it's a wonderful, playful, transcendent event when you make that huge climb with everyone else."

Although Liberty Island reopened to the public three months after the 2001 terror attacks, visits to the island are still down by at least 40%. Kim Wright, spokeswoman for the Circle Line ferry, says that's largely because people want to go inside the statue and up to the crown.

Landmark security is a cantankerous issue, for it raises a most fundamental of post-9/11 questions: What is caution, and what is cowardice?

In Washington, D.C., city officials complain about the federal government's refusal to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. Philadelphia Mayor John Street has ignored federal officials and reopened the street in front of Independence Hall. Meanwhile, a citizens group opposes plans for a security fence around the hall and the Liberty Bell.

The Statue of Liberty is the only major national landmark not to reopen after 9/11. Visitors can ride up the Washington Monument, walk past the Liberty Bell, drive across the Hoover Dam and tour the White House.

At Liberty Island, it's another story. "Don't rush out to the statue," a ferry dockhand advised a group of tourists boarding in Jersey City recently. "It's cold, and there's nothing to do there." Better to linger nearby at Ellis Island, where a museum chronicles the American immigrant experience, he said.

Some visitors arrive thinking that if Liberty Island is open, the statue must be, too. A small white sign at the base of the statue delivers the bad news. "I think you have to go up to the crown to really feel what it's like," says a disappointed Sina Froning, 25, who moved here from Germany two years ago. Unable to enter the statue or stand the winds of New York Harbor, most visitors huddle inside the snack bar and gift shop.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that as long as the statue is closed, "in some sense, the terrorists have won." On these winter days, standing outside the statue's huge bronze doors, it's hard to draw any other conclusion.

'Through the eyes of Liberty'

People were going inside the Statue of Liberty before it was even assembled. The right hand and torch were displayed in Philadelphia in 1876, and the head in Paris two years later.

Visitors eagerly clambered inside. Rudyard Kipling was 12 when he took 36 steps to the crown. A Frenchman told him, "Now you young Englisher, you can say you have looked through the eyes of Liberty herself!"

But the trek to the crown became a ritual almost by accident.

Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor, intended his statue to be seen from the outside. The interior staircase was designed to allow a lighthouse keeper access to the torch.

But the American committee that had raised money for the statue's pedestal and that after its dedication in 1886 hoped to raise more for upkeep wanted to encourage tourists to take the 25-cent ferry ride. People were allowed up to the crown's cramped interior observation platform, which has 25 windows, and to the torch's small, wind-blown balcony.

The climb became a sensation. The statue was the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere until the turn of the century and offered the city's finest views. Visitors also could see the statue's intricate internal skeleton, devised by French engineer Gustave Eiffel to support the 151-foot high, 225-ton goddess.

The rigors of the climb became legend. Listen to vaudeville comedian Cal Stewart's country bumpkin character, "Uncle Josh": "I commenced to climb, and I climbed and climbed and climbed, until I allowed as I must be up around her ear or nose, or up there somewhere. I stepped out a little door what I seen, and I shouted 'FIDDLESTICKS!' I hadn't gotten up any further than her big toe!"

After the torch was closed in 1916, the crown was the place to go — even though the city's new skyscrapers offered higher views.

Barry Moreno, a park ranger, recalls standing outside the front door on summer mornings waiting for the arrival of the first ferry. Suddenly, a mob of tourists would appear, sprinting toward the statue, eager to be the first to the top, winded before their first step up.

The hike to the crown was a sort of secular pilgrimage, a staple of class trips and family vacations. You waited for hours, sweating, making friends, complaining.

Complaining was half the fun, for in summer the statue's staircase was hot, crowded, noisy and monotonous. How clever, writer Madeleine Blais once observed, for a monument associated with immigration to "replicate the atmosphere of steerage."

Was it worth it? No, says Park Ranger Doug Freem. "But it's not so bad the next day. And next year you're bragging about it. And 20 years later you're back with your own kids to do it again."

A target as well as a symbol

But tourists were not the only ones who wanted into the statue. Suffragette demonstrators hired a boat to crash the dedication ceremony in 1886. Ever since, the statue has been a political symbol — the scene of demonstrations and occupations by everyone from Vietnam Veterans Against the War to Hungarian nationalists. People have chained themselves to the crown and unfurled banners from its windows.

For security reasons, in the mid-'90s the Park Service began limiting the number of people who went to the crown. It had become clear that to some people with a cause or a grudge the statue was more than a symbol. It was a target.

When the last ferry left Liberty Island at 5 p.m. Sept. 10, 2001, it looked as if it would be a record year for attendance: more than 4 million. The next morning, before the first ferry left its slip, the World Trade Center was attacked.

The island did not reopen to the public until Dec. 20. Terrorists, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said that day, "cannot — and they will not — shut us down."

That was precisely what they did. Four months later, Mayor Bloomberg asked the Park Service to open the crown "as soon as it possibly can." Then, in May 2002, U.S. intelligence indicated the possibility of an attack on Liberty and other New York landmarks.

Gov. George Pataki went to Liberty Island and vowed, "We will never give in to terror." Park Superintendent Diane Dayson said visitors would be allowed into the statue by summer.

It never happened. Peg Zitko, spokeswoman for the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, says, "Some people are saying, 'What's taking so long?' "

The short answer is security; park rangers speak darkly of images on the Internet of the statue being crushed by a fist. And, in a report issued in September 2003, Interior Department investigators said that "icon" national parks were "woefully unprotected" against terror attacks.

Last November, the foundation announced plans to raise $5 million for safety improvements that would allow the pedestal to reopen. Although the amount is well within reach, no one will say exactly how the money will be spent.

Brian Feeney, the Park Service's New York spokesman, sounds like a mobster hauled before a congressional committee when asked about anything related to statue security. But "three years ago," he says, "I'd tell you anything." It's sad, he says: "I miss what we're losing. Everything is scrutinized. But maybe our kids will get used to it."

Briganti, president of the foundation, says the big issue is evacuation. There's only one way in and out of the pedestal.

The Park Service won't comment on its plans for the statue, but they could include new exits created by building two covered exterior staircases between the top of the pedestal and the ground. Details of the project and a rough timetable for reopening the pedestal are expected to be made public within two months.

The crown is another matter. Although American Express ads soliciting donations for the safety work imply that the entire statue will reopen as a result, officials said two months ago that visitors probably would not be allowed to the top. "We don't want to have people up in there out of our sight and out of our reach," says Freem, the park ranger.

Briganti says there might be a way to allow visitors to see inside the statue from the top of the pedestal without going to the crown. The Park Service says nothing has been decided.

High-profile target

The idea of climbing to the crown excites schoolchildren, but it terrifies security experts.

They describe Liberty pre-9/11 as a peerless terrorist target: a relatively fragile, world-famous symbol in the middle of New York Harbor, filled with hundreds of people on a narrow stairway. Their frightening scenarios: a killer runs amok on the staircase; a suicide pilot strikes before people can be evacuated; a vessel opens fire from the harbor; a chemical or biological weapon is detonated inside the statue, which is like a capped chimney.

But some lovers of the statue are not convinced. "It is worth the risk, as long as they're careful about who gets on the ferry," says Betsy Maestro, author of a children's book on Liberty. "If we can secure airplanes every day, why not that island?"

"The feds may be frightened," the Daily News editorialized last month, "but the public most certainly is not."

Darren Bruna isn't sure what to think. On Independence Weekend 1986, the statue reopened after a two-year restoration. American schoolchildren had raised $6 million, and 50 of them were chosen from a poetry-essay contest to be the first to re-enter the statue.

Bruna, then a seventh-grader from Hollenberg, Kan., had written:

"Quietly, patiently, lovingly
The statue stands
A symbol of our country
The Lady."

It wasn't Yeats, but it was enough to win him a trip to New York and a place in front of the line.

"I think everybody ought to be able to go up there and see the view," says the erstwhile poet, who grew up to be a carpenter. "It is pretty remarkable."

At 32, Bruna still has photos and newspaper clippings from 1986. He understands why the statue is closed and that there are reasons why the crown might never reopen. But he has two boys of his own, and he says that someday he wants to take them into the statue — all the way to the top.

Copyright 2004 USA TODAY

[TLOZ Link5]

Since I've never been to Saint Louis and am in no position to make assumptions, could anyone who has been there or lives there tell me if the Gateway Arch would be pretty hard to evacuate in a worst-case scenario?

[BigMac]

Since I've never been to Saint Louis and am in no question to make assumptions, could anyone who has been there or lives there tell me if the Gateway Arch would be pretty hard to evacuate in a worst-case scenario?
I don't live there and have not yet been, but here (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92230,00.html) is some info on a situation in which the monument was evacuated.

[TLOZ Link5]

Thanks, Mac.

[sirhcman]

Since I've never been to Saint Louis and am in no position to make assumptions, could anyone who has been there or lives there tell me if the Gateway Arch would be pretty hard to evacuate in a worst-case scenario?

I live in St. Louis..If people were up inside the top of the arch they would pretty much be screwed in my opinion.....It depends how it would be attacked though to make a more accurate guess.

[sirhcman]

Since I've never been to Saint Louis and am in no question to make assumptions, could anyone who has been there or lives there tell me if the Gateway Arch would be pretty hard to evacuate in a worst-case scenario?
I don't live there and have not yet been, but here (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92230,00.html) is some info on a situation in which the monument was evacuated.

The transformer that caused the fire was on the arch grounds but not in the arch itself....It would be similar to there being a fire on the grounds around Lady liberty but not inside the monument..

[BigMac]

Newhouse News Service
March 11, 2004

Online-Auction Shopper Cracks 1980s Statue of Liberty Mystery

BY CHUCK McCUTCHEON

http://www.newhousenews.com/images/NNS_LIBERTY_THEFT.jpg
A drawing of the Statue of Liberty torch shows the location of the missing "acorn."

When Statue of Liberty enthusiast Brian Snyder recently visited eBay to look for memorabilia, he was shocked at what he found: an actual piece of the New York harbor monument, selling for $1,000.

"I knew right off the bat" it had been pilfered, he said. "It looked real, and I thought, `This doesn't belong to this guy!"'

So began a chain of events that ended last week with the National Park Service recovering the 4-inch, corncob-shaped item missing from the balcony encircling the flame of Lady Liberty's torch. It had disappeared almost two decades ago.

The copper artifact apparently was swiped by a construction worker during the monument's centennial restoration in 1986, federal authorities said. The FBI investigated the theft -- as well as that of an identical missing piece -- but did not solve the crimes.

Park Service officials said the worker's son received the object after his father died and -- unaware that it was obtained illegally -- decided to sell it on eBay, the online auction site.

Neither Park Service officials nor Snyder would identify the would-be seller, who described himself on eBay as a Great Neck, N.Y., resident and used the alias "somethingphysical." The man did not respond to interview requests e-mailed through the site.

No bids were received for the "Statue of Liberty pre-restoration artifact," online records show. As of Wednesday afternoon, the auction was still listed -- complete with photo -- but with a note that bidding had expired March 5.

The auction described the piece as an "acorn," but officials said it actually is a decorative ear of corn intended by the statue's French designer to represent the United States as a "land of plenty."

Park Service spokesman Brian Feeney said the piece is now "safely locked" in storage at the statue museum. Because of the "special circumstances" under which the seller came to possess it, a Park Service statement said, he is not expected to be charged with a crime.

Snyder is vice president and Webmaster for the Statue of Liberty Club, an international group of some 150 serious collectors of statue-shaped trinkets. He is such a devotee that he proposed to his wife at Liberty Island -- even giving her a torch-shaped ring.

He was suspicious of the eBay listing because there was no mention of a certificate of authenticity and the item differed greatly from souvenirs usually offered to collectors, he said. Those include tiny concrete chips from the statue's base, encased in glass and sold with the Park Service's blessing.

"I sent (the service) an e-mail with the auction listing and a note asking, `Federal property? Stolen?"' said Snyder, a 40-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative.

He got the object's history when he contacted the seller posing as an interested buyer.

Snyder was pleased to hear from the Park Service that the man had agreed to relinquish the artifact. "I just wanted to see the part recovered," he said. "I didn't want to see this guy put in jail."

Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, said the company would have notified the Park Service and stopped the auction had Snyder alerted it first. The site's policy forbids posting of stolen property.

Durzy said eBay features 20 million items for sale at any given time. "Because there are so many things on the site, we rely on a combination of our own proactive searching ... to ensure that something adheres to our policy, as well as community vigilance," he said.

Copyright 2004 Newhouse News Service

[BigMac]

CNN
March 25, 2004

Statue of Liberty to reopen soon, officials say

From Mike Ahlers
CNN Washington Bureau

The Statue of Liberty, which has been closed to visitors since the September 11, 2001, attacks, will be reopened shortly, national park officials told Congress on Thursday.

Park officials, testifying at a hearing on Capitol Hill, declined to give specifics, saying they did not want to usurp the authority of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who will make the official announcement.

But under questioning from lawmakers, National Park Service Deputy Director Don Murphy said the reopening is imminent.

He said a $7 million contribution from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation has helped security, health and safety enhancements at the site.

Pressed for a date, Murphy said, "Let me say candidly the reopening of the statue is really imminent. We've worked very hard. The plan is in the secretary's office. They're working on it almost as we speak, and we're going to be making an announcement in that regard sometime soon."

Murphy said it will cost $1.4 million to keep the statue open through fiscal 2005.

The site's grounds were closed after the attacks but have since reopened.

Copyright 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

[BigMac]

New York Daily News
March 30, 2004

Lucky Lady: Statue of Liberty to reopen in late July

The Associated Press

The Statue of Liberty, closed immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will reopen to the public in late July, Secretary of Interior Gale Norton said Tuesday.

Pledges of $7 million in donations, including a $100,000 gift from Mayor Bloomberg, will finance upgrades that were necessary at the national monument before it could be reopened.

Currently, tourists can visit Liberty Island but are not allowed inside the 151-foot statue in New York Harbor.

“Safety of our citizens and preservation of the statue are our main goals,” said Norton, acknowledging that the 118-year-old statue was “an attractive terrorist target.”

Bloomberg, who joined Norton at a news conference on the island, said he was “proud to have played such a small role” in getting the statue available to the public once again.

According to Norton, an examination of the national monument revealed potential for fire problems and a lack of exits. Screening procedures, much like those at airports, and a reservation system to reduce long lines will be implemented once the monument reopens, Norton said.

She said after the upgrades are completed, the public will be allowed to enjoy the panoramic view from the statue’s observation deck at the top of its pedestal, about 16 stories above ground. They will not be allowed into the crown, reached via narrow and winding stairs, because it cannot accommodate large numbers of tourists and does not meet local fire, building or safety codes.

The island was closed for 100 days after Sept. 11, 2001. Airport-type metal detectors were installed to screen visitors boarding the ferry from lower Manhattan, and the island was then reopened in December 2001. But the statue itself has remained closed.

Since the terrorist attacks, officials have said the number of visitors to Liberty Island has dropped by 40 percent. Still, more than 4 million people have visited since then.

The upgrade project is being overseen by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

Copyright 2004 Daily News, L.P.

[BigMac]

New York Times
March 30, 2004

Statue of Liberty to Be Reopened This Summer

By KIRK SEMPLE

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/03/30/nyregion/30cnd-liberty.650.jpg
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the reopening of the Statue of Liberty this summer would encourage tourism in Lower Manhattan.

The Statue of Liberty, shuttered since the terrorist strikes on Sept. 11, 2001, will likely reopen to visitors sometime this summer, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said today.

Ms. Norton predicted that the monument, which stands on an island in New York Harbor within view of the World Trade Center site, would reopen in four months.

The site was closed along with other iconic national monuments following the Sept. 11 attacks, though it remained closed well after the Washington Monument, the Liberty Bell pavilion in Philadelphia, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and other popular tourist destinations had opened.

Ms. Norton, speaking on two morning television programs today, said the Statue of Liberty has undergone an overhaul to help protect it from terrorist attacks and correct problems related to visitor access and fire safety. "There's lots of construction to be done," she said on the NBC News program "Today."

The government has already spent about $16 million on renovations, she said on the CBS News "Early Show," adding, "And we still have a ways to go."

Visitors will be able to climb only as high as the observation deck, at the top of the 154-foot granite pedestal on which the statue stands, Ms. Norton said. Access to the crown will remain off limits, though the interior secretary suggested it may reopen to the public at some time in the future.

"We know that the things that really mean so much to us about the statue are the views of the statue that people have treasured for generations," she said on the "Early Show." "We want to make sure that that is well-protected."

In addition, the National Park Service is instituting a system of reservations to prevent long lines, and is creating a new exit from the base to facilitate evacuations, Ms. Norton said.

The island was reopened in December 2001 after metal detectors were installed to screen visitors boarding the ferry from lower Manhattan, but the statue remained closed.

Until its closing, the statue, which is managed by the National Park Service, received an average of 6 million visitors a year, the service said. The United Nations declared the monument a World Heritage Site in 1984.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Slide Show: Statue of Liberty (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-liberty-gallery,0,7372733.photogallery?coll=nyc-swapbox-homepage)

[krulltime]

I feel sorry for the tourists this summer...Most of them make the statue of liberty their primary destination. but what is the purpose to just walk inside the observations deck anyway? :x

I don't find being on the top of the head special my self, but I did it for the experience anyway and I bet lot of people feel the same way.

[BigMac]

New York Newsday
March 30, 2004

Statue of Liberty to reopen with limits

By Glenn Thrush

Lady Liberty is now the Statue of Limitations.

For the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty will be open to visitors, thanks to $7 million in private donations -- $100,000 from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But the National Parks Service, which plans to relax restrictions by the end of July, may never allow the public back into copper-clad statue itself, according to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Statue designer Frederic Auguste Bartholdi "never intended visitors to the inside of Lady Liberty the stairs were designed for access by a lightkeeper and by maintenance," Norton said during a windswept ceremony at the monument Tuesday. "There are some real challenges to having visitors go up into the area of the crown."

The secretary didn't entirely rule out greater access in the future, but said Liberty's vulnerability to attack -- as evidenced by shrapnel damage caused by German sabotage of a Jersey City arms depot in 1916 -- made such a decision "difficult."

The island reopened two months after the attacks and has attracted four million tourists since, but the public has been limited to admiring the monument from other parts of the park.

The private donations, combined with $19.6 million in federal funding over the last two years, paid for beefed-up security, installation of reinforced stairwells and fire prevention equipment and for an evacuation plan created in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security.

The added security at the statue was apparent Tuesday, in the form of machine-gun toting guards, bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors.

Tuesday's announcement wasn't without controversy.

Local Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer, blasted the plan, said the Bush administration should have paid for the reopening without the use of private funds.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, said, "It has to be asked why it took two and a half years after 9/11 and just months before the GOP convention in New York, and why was the city forced to resort to in essence a bake sale to raise the money."

Bloomberg defended the fund-raising campaign, saying, "The Statue of Liberty stands as a symbol... Raising private money lets us do something that we all in our hearts know is right."

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[NewYorkYankee]

This sucks, When I come to NY next week I wanted to go into The Statue of Liberty. I wanted to go into the Torch....really sucks.

[BigMac]

USA Today: A rare look at Lady Liberty (http://www.usatoday.com/news/graphics/liberty/flash.htm)

[BigMac]

New York Times
April 4, 2004

Extra Fund-Raising Put Off Statue of Liberty Reopening

By MIKE McINTIRE

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/04/nyregion/liberty184.jpg
The Statue of Liberty has been off limits to visitors since 9/11.

On Tuesday, against the dramatic backdrop of New York Harbor, federal and city officials announced that the Statue of Liberty would be partially opened to visitors this summer, nearly three years after the Sept. 11 attacks forced it to shut for security concerns.

Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton said a private campaign to raise $7 million by having Americans send in Folgers coffee can lids and charge everyday expenses to their American Express cards had helped make it possible, at long last, to reopen the statue's base. Wal-Mart had helped, average citizens had mailed in checks, and even Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had pitched in $100,000 of his own money.

As Folgers had put it, every dollar was "necessary to reopen one of America's most cherished landmarks."

But interviews with two dozen current and former federal officials, fund-raisers and major donors, as well as a review of documents from the nonprofit foundation that is raising the money, show that the statue, the world's most recognizable symbol of freedom, could have been opened much earlier.

Millions of dollars held by the nonprofit Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation have long been available for the monument's emergency needs but went unspent. The National Park Service, which is responsible for the landmark, never asked Congress to provide the $2.3 million that they initially estimated was needed to do the work.

The Park Service wavered for at least a year on whether it even wanted to reopen the statue, then decided to turn the task over to the foundation. And once the foundation decided not to dig into its $30 million endowment and instead mount a separate fund-raising campaign, its goal steadily rose to $7 million as still more months went by.

Even now, more than two and a half years after the attacks that shut the statue, visitors will still not be able to go up to the crown, as they did in the past, because of the Park Service's continuing security concerns. As for the $7 million in public donations, it is unclear how much will be spent on safety improvements to open the base, as opposed to optional projects added later, such as a glass portal for viewing the inside of the statue.

The foundation, while choosing not to provide enough endowment money for the emergency exits and upgraded fire system necessary for the statue's reopening, at the same time paid $345,000 to its president, far more than is paid to chief executives at nonprofit foundations that support other parks. At the same time, risky investments contributed to a nearly $10 million drop in the value of its assets in the last two fiscal years.

Meanwhile, no other high-risk national landmark remains closed, including the Washington Monument and Empire State Building, leaving the statue alone as a shuttered symbol of the country's vulnerability to terrorists.

The reasons lie with the two main entities charged with protecting the statue, according to documents and interviews. The Park Service showed a pattern of inertia and disengagement from the task at hand. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which some believe should have been dissolved years ago after fulfilling its intended mission to restore the landmark, showed more interest in preserving its considerable assets than in supporting the statue, even in the midst of a crisis.

Even some of those who supported the foundation's earlier campaigns and find value in public-private partnerships now question the relationship between the Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

Donald P. Hodel, a Republican who was secretary of the interior during the major restoration of the statue during the 1980's, said in an interview that he had watched as the Park Service had "very much fallen under the sway of the foundation." He said he disagreed with the foundation's decision to raise more money instead of spending what it already had.

"I think it's improper," said Mr. Hodel, who in recent years was involved with another nonprofit group that abandoned an effort to raise money for the statue after the group was sued by the foundation for trademark infringement. "It is the creation of an endowed entity, which by keeping its funds to itself is free to pay its employees in perpetuity, whether or not it does anything for the statue."

The Park Service's approach also does not sit well with some members of Congress who have expressed concerns that the statue's closing was exploited to raise money, and argue that the responsibility for public safety improvements rests with the government.

"I resent the commercialization of it, pretending that we have to go begging corporations for money, when there has been more than enough money all along," said Representative Maurice Hinchey of New York, a Democratic member of the House subcommittee that oversees financing for the Park Service. "As an American citizen, I don't want the Statue of Liberty co-opted by Wal-Mart."

Officials at the foundation and the Park Service defended their roles. Stephen A. Briganti, the foundation president, said repeatedly in an interview that it would not be prudent to withdraw the money from the endowment, which he said should be "saved for the future." He also insisted that reopening the statue was not slowed because of money, but rather by the lengthy process required to study what needs to be done, agree on a plan and get it approved by the Park Service.

Edie Shean-Hammond, the spokeswoman for the National Park Service Northeast Region, said her agency sought help from the foundation because "it's a matter of tradition, the way we do business."

While allowing that "we may move a little too slowly for the American public," she said there was no reason to rush.

"You've got to realize that we're really a very, very conservative agency," Ms. Shean-Hammond said. "The parks that we manage - the Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone - they will all be here 500, 700 years from now. These decisions cannot be made in a New York minute."

Reliance on Private Support

The concept of using private donations to help maintain public spaces is neither new nor unique to the Statue of Liberty. Indeed, it was a nationwide fund-raising effort by the publisher Joseph Pulitzer in 1885 that financed construction of the pedestal on which the statue stands.

The practice blossomed during the Reagan administration, which urged greater use of public-private partnerships throughout the government. Today, private groups contribute a total of about $40 million a year to support 347, or 90 percent, of the country's national parks.

Held up as a model when it was established in 1982, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, led at the time by Lee A. Iacocca, then the chairman of Chrysler, was given the mission of raising money necessary to refurbish the statue after years of neglect.

More than $300 million was raised from individual and corporate contributions, enough to fix up the statue in time for a gala reopening on July 4, 1986, and to renovate much of Ellis Island and establish a $20 million endowment "to restore, preserve and protect" the monument in the future.

After its mission was completed, the fate of the foundation and its endowment was unclear. Mr. Hodel said that he did not recall specific discussions, but that in hindsight, "It's clear to me that, in some fashion, the foundation should have been wound down."

Mr. Briganti, who directed the foundation's fund-raising during the restoration campaign and became president after the 1986 reopening, acknowledged that the foundation "was thinking of winding itself down." But that changed, he said, after the Park Service began asking it to take on management of new projects.

The foundation's role began to shift in the 1990's away from a passive financing source to one that was more active in the daily operations of the monument.

"When we first started this, we gave grants to the Park Service," Mr. Briganti said in a recent interview at the foundation's Madison Avenue office. "Then the Park Service asked us to do all the contracting. I was hesitant at first because I didn't think we were qualified."

One of his biggest projects was the creation of a $22.5 million American Family Immigration History Center, where people can search computerized archives of Ellis Island for information on ancestors. The foundation restored more buildings on Ellis Island, expanded the oral history studio and children's visitor center, operates a "living theater" program and publishes curriculum guides for teachers. The projects have become a critical resource for immigration and genealogical research, and the island itself has been transformed into a major destination for tourists and students.

Meanwhile, as the foundation focused on its own programs, using the bulk of its budget for them, little work was done on a number of basic infrastructure problems at the statue, such as a lack of emergency exits, sprinkler systems and lighting, which the Park Service now cites as reasons for keeping the statue closed.

"These issues were well known for years, but everyone worked around them," said a senior Park Service official in New York, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We screwed up and let everything sit there until it reached a boiling point after 9/11."

Ms. Shean-Hammond said that before Sept. 11, the Park Service had begun assessing safety improvements that were needed. They were not completed before the attacks.

Expenses and Salaries Grow

As the foundation's activities have grown, so have its expenses. Staff salaries doubled to $2.1 million from 1997 to 2002, and Mr. Briganti's compensation increased to $345,000 from $214,000.. One other executive on his staff makes more than $200,000, while three others make more than $100,000.

The Golden Gate National Parks Association, which gave more money to the Park Service than any other group in 2001, pays its executive director $188,300.

Mr. Briganti, 62 and a career fund-raiser, said he did not believe his pay was unusually high, and he cited a Chronicle of Philanthropy survey last year that he said placed his salary "in the middle" of chief executives at 235 nonprofit organizations.

His salary is actually higher than the $285,000 median established by the survey, which included the 50 wealthiest foundations, each with assets of $200 million to $24 billion. By comparison, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation reported net assets last year of $38 million.

Mr. Briganti said his pay was set by a compensation committee of the 20-member board, and that he was not involved in its deliberations. The full board, heavily made up of retired businessmen and former federal officials, some living in Texas, California and Virginia, meets twice a year.

Attempts to speak with William F. May, 87, the board's chairman, were unsuccessful. Peg Zitko, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said that "Mr. May doesn't really do media interviews," and that Mr. Briganti generally speaks for the foundation.

Mr. Briganti said the foundation spent an average of $1 million a year from interest earned on the endowment for Park Service projects. Private donations and income from programs support all of the foundation's other expenses, of $5 million to $10 million a year.

The foundation's combined endowment and general fund shrank to $37.7 million last year, from $51 million in 2001, largely because of poorly performing investments.

In 2001, the foundation retained new asset managers, who proceeded to shift $9.5 million out of relatively safe fixed-income investments into stock mutual funds. Within a year, those investments lost half their value, as did another $14.6 million in common stocks the foundation had bought earlier.

The aggressive investments would appear to be at odds with Mr. Briganti's protective stance toward the endowment.

By his own account, when the Park Service came looking for help last year to finance the reopening of the statue, he did not seriously consider dipping deeply into it.

Nothing restricts the foundation legally from doing so and, in fact, its bylaws would seem to explicitly authorize it. They state that in addition to the investment income from its donations, the foundation can spend the "principal thereof" to fulfill its mandate to "restore, preserve and protect the Statue of Liberty National Monument."

Asked why the foundation would not use its endowment to pay for the work required to reopen, given the extraordinary circumstances, Mr. Briganti expressed a strong philosophical aversion to using the principal under almost any circumstance.

"Technically the endowment is unrestricted, but we don't see it that way," he said. "If you're of a mind that the endowment is for the future, you wouldn't want to invade the principal."

John B. Turbidy, a member of the foundation's board since 1982, expressed a similar view.

"Those funds were not intended to support major undertakings like the reopening of the statue," said Mr. Turbidy, a financial executive. "This is the sort of thing that we would normally do a fund-raising campaign for."

A Request for Help

While seeking federal funds to renovate bathhouses and sewers at other national parks, the Park Service did not turn to Congress for the money to reopen the statue. It also did not reach out to the foundation for help until the middle of 2003.

Earlier, the Park Service did complete, on its own, some security improvements that allowed the public to return to the grounds of Ellis Island and Liberty Island by the end of 2001. Interior Secretary Norton said last week that the federal government had spent $19.6 million so far, mostly on security checkpoints for tourists boarding boats to the islands.

Meanwhile, the number of visitors to Liberty Island dropped to 1.8 million last year from 2.7 million in the first nine months of 2001. And no work was started on a project that foundation and Park Service officials say is most needed: construction of an additional stairway to allow visitors to descend from the statue's base to the ground in an emergency. The statue sits atop an old fort that has only one exit.

The Park Service official in New York said there was no progress on that part of the project during 2002, and Mr. Briganti said he, too, detected little sense of urgency during his periodic conversations with the Park Service. "They did not know whether they wanted to reopen it or not," he said.

Ms. Shean-Hammond said the Park Service had completed the work that it "felt was necessary to do the government's job, to allow people to experience the island, the park, if you will."

"In terms of priorities,'' she said, "we needed to see how the visits were going in the current climate of war and terror, to see if we could accommodate allowing people back into the base."

The Park Service eventually asked the foundation to provide $800,000 from its endowment toward a preliminary $2.3 million plan for fire safety upgrades and two emergency staircases, according to a memorandum of agreement drawn up last summer. But the foundation would agree only to provide the endowment money in two $400,000 installments, paid over two years, and finance the rest with fund-raising and concession fees from tourists.

The memorandum said the foundation would be "solely responsible" for design and construction work, and it required that "any contributions received by the National Park Service or any other organization" be directed to the foundation.

That last provision discouraged at least one donation. William D. Fugazy, a travel and limousine executive who was chairman of the New York State Statue of Liberty Commission in the 1980's, said he offered to arrange a contribution from a wealthy friend, "in excess of $1 million," to the Park Service to help reopen the statue. Mr. Fugazy's account was confirmed by a Park Service official.

But when he was told that any donations had to be made to the foundation, he said he and his friend decided not to make a contribution after a conversation with Mr. Briganti.

"He insisted that he wanted to take control of it, so we decided not to do it," Mr. Fugazy said.

Mr. Briganti declined to comment.

By September, the foundation had begun a sophisticated campaign, backed by corporate sponsors, to raise $5 million - double what the Park Service had estimated the cost of the work to be. Mr. Briganti said the new figure reflected updated cost projections, but he did not provide details.

With the country music singer Naomi Judd and new sponsors like The Daily News on board, the foundation exceeded its $5 million fund-raising goal by February. But it was then announced that the cost of the project had risen again, this time to $7 million, so the drive was extended.

At least part of the additional expense appears geared toward addressing the public's disappointment over not being allowed into the statue itself: the plan calls for a glass ceiling to allow visitors to look up into the statue.

Last month, questions from the news media and members of Congress began to arise, and a Park Service official suddenly announced at a Congressional hearing on March 25 that the statue's reopening was imminent.

Five days later, on Tuesday, officials gathered in New York to announce the news. The event was so hastily arranged that most of the invited guests, including Mayor Bloomberg, were given only 24 hours' notice, and one congressman said he was called by the Park Service at 10 p.m. the night before.

Taking his turn at the lectern during the announcement, Mr. Bloomberg praised the fund-raising drive as Mr. Briganti and Ms. Norton, standing behind him, smiled.

"I really am a believer that the private sector has to help in things the government doesn't have the money for," the mayor said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

April 5, 2004

U.S. Is Investigating Use of Donors' Gifts to Statue of Liberty

By MIKE McINTIRE

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/05/nyregion/05stat.jpg
Gale A. Norton, the secretary of the interior, announced last week that the base of the Statue of Liberty would reopen this summer. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, left, and Stephen A. Briganti, president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, also attended the news conference.

Federal investigators have begun an inquiry into the National Park Service's dealings with a nonprofit foundation it relied on to handle the reopening of the Statue of Liberty, according to a government official.

The inspector general of the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, is investigating how the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation spent donations it raised for projects at the monument and whether it followed federal guidelines on competitive bidding for certain contracts, the official said.

The inquiry, which the official said had begun within the last two weeks, will also explore why the foundation did not spend more of the money it already had for the reopening, instead of mounting a separate fund-raising campaign that has collected nearly $7 million from corporations, the public and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who contributed $100,000 of his own money.

"We want to know, why do you have to solicit $100,000 from Mike Bloomberg when you're sitting on $30 million?" said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Officials at the foundation and the Park Service did not respond to messages seeking comment yesterday.

The New York Times reported yesterday that delays by the Park Service and reluctance by the foundation to spend its money have prevented the statue's reopening, two and half years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack forced the closing of major American landmarks. Other sites, including the Washington Monument and the public rooms of the White House, have reopened.

Officials at the foundation and the Park Service defended their roles in interviews for that article. The foundation's president, Stephen A. Briganti, insisted that the reopening of the statue was not slowed because of money, but because plans had not been put into place. He said it was the foundation's policy not to use its endowment to pay for major projects.

The Park Service said that it traditionally turns to the foundation for help with projects at the monument, and it defended its pace on the reopening as prudent.

Gale A. Norton, secretary of the interior, announced last week that public access to the statue's base, which houses a museum, is expected to resume this summer, after safety improvements are put in place by the foundation. But visitors will no longer be allowed to enter the statue and ascend the spiral stairs to its crown, despite the foundation's claims that donations would be used to "reopen Lady Liberty."

The inspector general's investigation is not the first to raise questions about the foundation's activities or the broader issue of the Park Service's reliance on private groups to help manage the country's 385 national parks.

In 1986, four years after the foundation was created to raise money to restore the statue and Ellis Island after years of neglect, Congress investigated accusations of conflicts of interest, overspending and mismanagement on the part of foundation officials. Claims of financial impropriety were not proved, although a report on the investigation said it had found evidence of some administrative problems.

After completing the restoration by the late 1980's and establishing a $20 million endowment, the foundation defied the expectations of some at the time that it would dissolve and transfer its money to the Park Service. Instead, it took on new projects, including setting up a genealogy research center on Ellis Island, and its endowment grew to more than $30 million, much larger than those of any of the nonprofit groups that support 347 other national parks.

In 2001, the groups together contributed $47 million to the parks and retained assets totaling about $200 million. But aside from basic information provided in federal tax returns, details of how the groups handle their finances are often unavailable to the public - and, sometimes, even to the Park Service.

Last year, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report that the Park Service "needs to better manage the increasing role" of its nonprofit partners. The accounting office found that the Park Service lacked even "basic management information" about how much money the groups were raising and how it was being spent.

What is more, the report said, the failure to track such data seemed deliberate.

"Park Service and nonprofit officials expressed concern that collecting and reporting detailed information on the amount of nonprofit financial contributions made to parks could lead to offsetting reductions in Congressional appropriations made available to the agency," the report said.

In the case of reopening the Statue of Liberty, some members of Congress have said there would most likely have been little resistance to providing money to complete the work. The needed improvements, mainly an additional staircase to use in emergencies and upgrades to fire safety systems, were initially expected to cost $2.3 million.

The Park Service, which Secretary Norton said has spent $19.6 million over the last two years on other safety improvements at the landmark, reopened access to the grounds of Liberty Island in December 2001. But it then delayed a decision on whether to reopen the statue's base for at least a year, eventually deciding in mid-2003 not to seek federal funding and, instead, turn the project over to the foundation.

The foundation, despite having more than $30 million in its endowment for work related to the statue and Ellis Island, began a $5 million fund-raising drive in September. The goal of the campaign has since climbed to $7 million, and construction of the safety upgrades had not begun as of last week.

One area of inquiry that the official said the inspector general's office is focusing on is how the foundation has spent the private donations it raised on the monument's behalf, and whether work performed on projects adhered to competitive bidding requirements.

In an interview last week, Mr. Briganti said formal competitive bids were sought for construction work, but generally not for hiring professionals, like architects or designers. The foundation's tax returns from 1997 to 2002 show that it has tended to stay with the same design consultants, lawyers and computer software firms over the years.

In 2001 and 2002, the foundation paid a law firm $279,000 for legal work, the tax returns show. It is unclear what the work entailed. However, in 2002, the same firm represented the foundation in a lawsuit against another nonprofit group, Friends of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Foundation, which had tried to raise donations for the monument.

The suit claimed trademark infringement by the other group, which, according to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, was using a name and logo similar to its own. The case was closed as of last year; details of how it was concluded were not available yesterday.

The General Accounting Office has been asked to start its own review of the campaign to reopen the statue. Yesterday, Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a New York Democrat, released a letter asking General Accounting Office investigators to determine whether the Park Service's reliance on the foundation broke any laws and why the statue remains closed.

"Thousands of generous private donors have sent tens of millions of dollars to the foundation," Mr. Weiner said, "and they have every right to ask, 'What happened to my money?' "

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[krulltime]

Ups...Do I see a new episode of a big trial in NYC again?

[BigMac]

New York Newsday
April 5, 2004

Mayor: Statue should reopen completely

The Associated Press

A week after Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended a ceremony in which federal officials announced that the Statue of Liberty would remain closed to visitors, he said Monday the statue should be reopened, even if each tourist is escorted by a police officer.

The 118-year-old statue has been closed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for security reasons. "You can't let the terrorists win," the mayor said Monday.

Last week during a news conference at the base of the statue on Liberty Island, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton said that an observation area in the statue's pedestal would be reopened but that the crown, reached via narrow and winding stairs, would remain closed because it cannot accommodate large numbers of people and does not meet local fire, building or safety codes.

Bloomberg, who contributed $100,000 of his own money to help finance upgrades that will allow the pedestal to be reopened this summer, spoke at the press conference but said nothing about the need to allow public access to the national monument.
On Monday, however, the mayor blasted the federal government's decision to close the statue and its plans not to reopen it.

"I didn't think they should close the Statue of Liberty, period," Bloomberg said. "This is a symbol of America. Come on, let's stand up and have some guts. If we have to have the security people there, let's do it, but let's get it open." He said there are ways to provide more security.

"If you have to have a police officer standing next to every single person going in there," he said, "that's a better way to do it."

The New York Times reported Monday that the inspector general of the U.S. Department of the Interior is seeking to determine why the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation launched a $7 million fund-raising campaign for the reopening when it already had a $30 million endowment.

The private foundation's president, Stephen Briganti, did not return a call seeking comment Monday. But he has said the group's policy is not to use its endowment to pay for major projects.

The Times said the statue has been closed so long even as other national monuments have reopened after Sept. 11 because the National Park Service, unsure it wanted to reopen the statue, did not ask Congress for money.

At the press conference last week, Norton said the statue has been closed because an examination of the interior after the World Trade Center attack revealed potential fire and security problems and insufficient exits.

On Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., sent letters to Norton, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and interior department Inspector General Earl Devaney, saying the committee intended to investigate the foundation's activities.

"I'm very concerned by reports that are surfacing that it was the foundation's fiscal mismanagement, rather than overarching security concerns, that have caused the delay," Baucus said. "I'm further concerned that the National Park Service did not step forward and ask Congress for help once it became apparent to them that the foundation was failing its mission. If we find that the reports of the foundation turn out to be true, serious action will need to be taken regarding private entities having virtual control over the public's property."

The National Park Service, which operates Liberty Island and the statue, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

When the pedestal reopens -- possibly in July -- screening procedures, much like those at airports, and a reservation system to reduce long lines will be in place.

Liberty Island was closed for 100 days after Sept. 11, 2001.

Airport-type metal detectors were installed to screen visitors boarding the ferry to the island from lower Manhattan, and the island was then reopened in December 2001.

Since the Sept. 11 attack, the number of visitors to Liberty Island has dropped by 40 percent. Still, more than 4 million people have visited since then.

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[Kris]

April 6, 2004

Senate Committee Seeks Statue of Liberty Foundation's Records

By MIKE McINTIRE

A Senate committee that oversees charities' compliance with the nation's tax laws requested records yesterday of contracts, staff salaries and other financial information from the nonprofit foundation managing the reopening of the Statue of Liberty.

The Finance Committee, prompted by reports that the statue's opening had been stalled because of governmental delays and fund-raising by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, wants the foundation to justify staff salaries that exceed $100,000 and explain any contracts that were awarded without competitive bidding.

In addition, the committee asked the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, the caretaker of the statue, to turn over all documents pertaining to the service's dealings with the foundation for the last five years. The Park Service agreed last year to give the foundation sole responsibility for the reopening project.

"The agency might have given too much control of a prized national asset to a private foundation," Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who heads the committee, said in a statement.

"We need to figure out the relationship between the federal agency and the private foundation so this kind of standstill doesn't happen again," he said. "While the agency and foundation waste time, millions of Americans and aspiring Americans are denied decent access to our greatest beacon of freedom."

The Finance Committee's request for information signaled the second inquiry known to be under way into the foundation and its relationship with the Park Service. The inspector general's office in the Interior Department is also conducting an investigation.

Peg Zitko, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said her group kept the Park Service informed of its activities. The foundation files quarterly financial reports with the agency, and a representative from the Interior Department "almost certainly" takes part in meetings of the foundation's 20-member board, which convenes about twice a year, she said.

She said that the foundation was proud of its work over the years on behalf of the monument, and that she was confident about the outcome of any inquiries. "The foundation is very happy to cooperate," she said. "There are a lot of misperceptions out there about this project and foundation's role in it."

A spokeswoman for the Park Service did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Meanwhile, there were fresh expressions of concern yesterday about the handling of the reopening project from, among others, a member of the foundation's board and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

USA Today reported yesterday that its editor, Karen Jurgensen, resigned from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation's board after reading an article in The New York Times on Sunday about delays in the reopening of the statue.

Ms. Jurgensen, who joined the board last summer, said she had been "unaware of the decisions behind the fund-raising campaign that was under way when she agreed to join the board," USA Today reported. She told the newspaper she resigned to avoid any conflicts because USA Today would be reporting on the issue.

Mr. Bloomberg, who responded to the foundation's fund-raising appeal last year with a personal donation of $100,000, told reporters yesterday that he believed the statue should have been opened long ago. He attributed the delay to the Park Service's wavering on whether it wanted to allow public access to the statue, after it reopened the grounds of Liberty Island in December 2001.

"I didn't think they should close the Statue of Liberty, period," the mayor said. "This is a symbol of America. Come on, let's stand up and have some guts! If we have to add some security people there, let's do it, but let's get it open."

An aide to the mayor said his comments reflected frustration over the controversy that has erupted, less than a week after Mr. Bloomberg was asked by Interior Department officials to take part in an announcement last Tuesday that the statue's base would reopen this summer. The department should have known that trouble was brewing, the aide said, given that its inspector general was already investigating the project and a city newspaper, amNew York, had reported on the foundation's finances.

The foundation has more than $30 million in an endowment for the maintenance and preservation of the statue and Ellis Island, but decided not to use it to pay for the improvements needed to reopen the statue's base. The work primarily involves the addition of an emergency exit and improvements to fire safety systems, and was initially expected to cost $2.3 million.

To pay for the work, the foundation launched a $5 million fund-raising campaign, whose goal has since climbed to $7 million. Construction work, expected to take about four months to complete, had not started as of last week.

The foundation's president, Stephen A. Briganti, has said that he has been awaiting approval from the Interior Department to begin work, which was only granted within the last week or so. He has defended the decision to not finance the project with endowment money, saying it should be preserved as a source of investment income to support smaller-scale projects.

A member of the Senate Finance Committee staff, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "We've been looking for some time at this issue of accountability among the charities that the Park Service works with, and what we're seeing with the Statue of Liberty raises the same question of, 'Who's minding the store?' "

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

New York Daily News
April 6, 2004

Open Lady Liberty, all of Lady Liberty

Readers of the Daily News dug deep into their pockets and contributed $60,000 toward reopening the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of U.S. resilience following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. What they and thousands of other donors are getting instead is the right to visit the Stump of Liberty, and that's not good enough.

The federal government is letting Americans down by decreeing that visitors will be limited to touring the statue's base when the monument opens its doors again in a few months. Making the inspirational climb to the crown, as millions from around the world did pre-9/11, will be forbidden.

So saith Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, whose department has shamefully allowed the country's most enduring symbol to remain shuttered for 2-1/2 years and relied far too heavily on charity to get even part of it opened. Not that New Yorkers mind doing their bit. That's why they contributed so generously to the special fund-raising drive by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. Now, they deserve their money's worth.

There are, we are supposed to believe, safety concerns. Previously, terror attacks were cited. That cowardice not playing well, Norton now says the statue must stay closed because it can't handle crowds and does not meet local, fire, building or safety codes.

Gee. Large crowds happily tramped up and down the two winding staircases for more than 100 years without panicking at the thought of fire, pestilence or plague. As for alleged code violations, why has this suddenly become a problem? Perhaps Norton would like to erect fire escapes around Miss Liberty? How about around the Washington Monument. At 555 feet, it is considerably taller than the statue, and it is open to the public.

In any case, the guy who oversees all the local codes - Mayor Bloomberg - is as unhappy as the rest of the populace with the feds' handing victory to terrorists. Which, no matter what they babble about codes and such, is exactly what they are doing. Surrendering. In the name of all of us. No matter how distasteful we find that.

The statue, said Bloomberg yesterday, "is a symbol of America. Come on, let's stand up and have some guts." Meaning let it be opened from ground to crown - as it always has been.

Copyright 2004 Daily News, L.P.

[Kris]

April 7, 2004

Lady Liberty Held Hostage

The Statue of Liberty has always had a special place in American hearts, and when private donors were asked to pitch in to help make sure it was reopened after 9/11, the money poured in. While the donors should be celebrated for their generosity, this sort of basic caretaking at a national monument should have been done by the government. The statue's reopening has turned into an embarrassment for the Interior Department, and the most troubling aspect is what it says about the chronic underfinancing of the national park system.

Like other vulnerable landmarks, the statue was shut down after the terrorist attacks. The National Park Service then spent $19 million on security-related projects, which allowed the public to return to Ellis Island and Liberty Island by the end of 2001. But rather than do the work needed to reopen the statue itself, it turned the task of making the necessary safety improvements over to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The base will be reopened in August once the fixes are made.

The foundation, created to raise money for the statue's centennial in 1986, has a $30 million endowment. Critics wonder why it didn't tap that money to make the improvements instead of exploiting the project to begin a fund-raising campaign. But the bigger question is why the government dallied and why it turned to the foundation for a job that was part of its basic responsibilities.

The answers are not reassuring. Congress and the executive branch have been nickle-and-diming the parks for years, creating a $5 billion maintenance backlog that President Bush, despite stirring campaign promises, has hardly dented. The operating budget is also starved. The net result has been an emerging codependence between the Park Service and the private foundations formed to help the parks, with the foundations doing more and more essential work as public financing slips behind.

These foundations were designed to support extra services, not the critical missions that lie at the heart of the Park Service's responsibility. And if one were drawing up a list of such critical missions, one would surely include the reopening of the Statute of Liberty among them.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Bloomberg.com
April 8, 2004

Wal-Mart Suspends Fundraising for Statue of Liberty

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, said it would suspend fundraising activities for restoring public access to the Statue of Liberty until investigations of the private foundation supporting the effort are completed, a company spokeswoman said.

"We will not be doing any fundraising activities at our stores or clubs, or making any corporate match until the investigations that are taking place regarding the Statue of Liberty foundation is resolved,'' Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark said in a telephone interview. The company had pledged to contribute as much as $1.5 million in matching funds.

Clark said Wal-Mart decided to reverse its policy on the fundraising campaign. She had said yesterday that the company wanted to continue backing the drive by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, whose management of efforts to partly reopen the monument is under investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. Department of Interior's inspector general and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Those investigations followed reports in the New York Times and another newspaper, amNew York, that the foundation set out to raise $7 million for the statue without tapping its endowment -- worth more than four times that much -- and that it paid its president, Stephen Briganti, 62, a salary of $345,000 a year. The fundraising drive's corporate backers have included Wal-Mart, American Express Co. and Procter & Gamble Co.

"We wanted to wait until the investigations were completed to see what was discovered at that point,'' said Clark, the Wal- Mart spokeswoman.

The Interior Department last week announced plans to allow the public by July to enter the statue's base after safety and security improvements are completed. The public, formerly used to be allowed to climb stairs inside the statue as well as visit the base, has been barred from the monument in the 2 1/2 years since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Copyright 2004 Bloomberg L.P.

[Kris]

April 11, 2004

The Benefactors of Miss Liberty (3 Letters)

To the Editor:

In "Lady Liberty Held Hostage" (editorial, April 7), you say the government should bear the cost and responsibility for reopening the Statue of Liberty.

On the contrary: befitting of its name, the statue was a private gift paid for by French citizens of their own accord. Likewise, the pedestal was bought with private funds, given voluntarily by patriotic Americans.

Now, even though charitable donations have once again been raised for her benefit, you call for Lady Liberty to be financed by taxpayers.

The irony is sublime!

CHRIS PEIKERT
Cambridge, Mass., April 7, 2004

•

To the Editor:

Regarding the overzealous fund-raising and excessive salaries paid by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and the delays in reopening the statue to the public (news article, April 6):

It seems that the only thing less efficient than government bureaucracy is the performance of government functions by a private foundation with little public accountability or oversight, and no institutional interest beyond paying its principals large salaries and extending its mandate to do so for as long as humanly possible.

MICHAEL S. SCHREIBER
New York, April 7, 2004

•

To the Editor:

In "Extra Fund-Raising Stalled Statue of Liberty Reopening" (front page, April 4), you link the timing of the Statue of Liberty's reopening to the fund-raising by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

In fact, only the National Park Service controls when and how the statue is opened, not the foundation, which has done everything it has been asked to do by the federal government in connection with restoring the statue while accounting for every dollar raised and spent.

Since 1982, we have restored the statue and produced a celebration for her 100th anniversary; revitalized Ellis Island and established its renowned immigration museum and history center; and created an important genealogical research Web site with more than six billion hits to date. And we created an endowment that generates income for important maintenance at the monument.

All of these successes have been achieved with minimal staff and little fanfare while focusing our attention on tangible results for the public good.

WILLIAM F. MAY
New York, April 8, 2004
The writer is chairman of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

April 15, 2004

METRO MATTERS

Rescuing the Lady, by Boat

By JOYCE PURNICK

THE answer to the Statue of Liberty's money problems is staring New York right in its face. In bright orange.

The Lady needs money for improvements and better security, as all the world must know by now, and has turned to the public for contributions.

This generated a recent fuss, because the National Park Service didn't pay for the improvements, instead turning to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. And because the foundation tapped contributors instead of its $30 million endowment.

The Park Service has shown no inclination to change its position. And while spending the endowment would seem an easy solution, most foundations, charities and cultural organizations decline to dip into their endowments, citing fiduciary responsibility.

They treat endowments as their core asset, investing them and spending only the income they generate, usually for operating expenses. For instance, Lincoln Center just announced a $325 million redevelopment plan. Lincoln Center Inc., which will be responsible for just more than half of that, has an endowment of $140 million. "We have no intention of using endowment money for the project," Lincoln Center's president, Reynold Levy, said yesterday. "We are underendowed as an arts organization. Arts institutions run at a deficit." And most of the $140 million has spending restrictions on it.

And a few months ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it wanted to expand its fund-raising campaign by $250 million for construction projects, $75 million of it to expand the museum's $1.7 billion endowment, to finance operation of the new spaces. The $1.7 billion will remain intact.

Institutions should be more flexible, critics say. "The typical practice in philanthropy is to protect your endowment, but we say you needn't be so conservative in your spending," said Rick Cohen, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. He advises some institutions to tap their endowments. But that is not standard practice, and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation is no exception.

"Our board has considered the endowment inviolate, from a fiduciary responsibility and from the matter of the spirit in which it was raised," said the foundation's president, Stephen A. Briganti. Starting in 1982, he said, the foundation raised the endowment money, pledging to preserve at least $20 million. It has spent about $1 million of the endowment a year on maintenance projects and visitor amenities, but to maintain the principal, it has deliberately relied on fund-raising for larger projects.

Today, the foundation is about $1.1 million short of the $7 million it says it needs for the statue, and the statue will always need resources. Why not turn to a reliable source of income? The Staten Island Ferry.

THE ferry is a potential windfall for the Lady. Last week, during spring break, the bright orange boats were so packed with tourists that the regulars seemed ready to swim. "It's free?" said a stunned-looking visitor from Chevy Chase, Md., standing in the Whitehall Terminal last Thursday with her husband and two young daughters.

Her family had planned to take the Circle Line ferry ($10 an adult ticket, $4 for children) to Liberty Island. It is open to visitors, and by midsummer, people should be able to climb to the top of the statue's pedestal, though not to its crown. But the wait to board a Liberty Island boat was nearly two hours last week, compared with a half-hour at most for the ferry to Staten Island. And as ever, it passes the statue on each leg of its 25-minute trips, close enough to see her brooding face.

"It's still the best ride in the City of New York," said Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall, revealing that her first date with her future husband (Senator Charles E. Schumer) was a round-trip ferry ride at dusk.

They've been married 23 years.

The ferry ride - 5 cents in 1897 - rose to 10 cents in 1972 and 25 cents in 1975. It doubled in 1990, but when he was running for re-election in 1997, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani eliminated the 50-cent fare. And another mayoral election is coming up.

O.K., why not at least charge the tourists - as many as 5 million of the 19 million annual ferry riders?

Ms. Weinshall laughed. How to distinguish tourist from nontourist? "If this columnist can figure out how we can do it, we'd love to talk to her about it."

She's working on it. Must be possible in the era of the MetroCard - and easier, for sure, than debating fiduciary policy.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Yahoo! Finance
April 23, 2004

Blue Ribbon Committee to Conduct Independent Review of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

William F. May, chairman of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc., announced today that Judge Griffin B. Bell, former Attorney General of the United States, has agreed to Chair a special, blue-ribbon committee that will conduct a full and independent review of all issues raised by recent press coverage of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

Joining Judge Bell will be Robert Fiske, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Robert McGuire, former New York City Police Commissioner; G. G. Michelson, Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University and Russell Reynolds founder of the national executive search firm that bears his name.

"The Foundation's Board has authorized the Independent Review Committee to look into all issues that Committee deems appropriate," said Mr. May. "We have asked for a thorough, full and independent review, and a written report that addresses all of the issues raised in recent press accounts."

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1982 to raise funds for and oversee the historic restorations of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, working in partnership with the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. In addition to restoring the monuments, the Foundation created a museum in the Statue's base and the world-class Ellis Island Immigration Museum, The American Immigrant Wall of Honor® and the American Family Immigration History Center(TM) and saved and restored a total of five buildings on Ellis Island. The Foundation promised to its donors in the 1980s and established in 1993 an endowment under the auspices of its board of directors that would annually help maintain the work the Foundation had done on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and enhance the visitor experience for years to come. Since the endowment's inception, proceeds from its principal have funded over 200 projects at the islands for a total of $12.3 million. Currently the Foundation is spearheading a campaign to fund critical safety improvements at the Statue of Liberty so that she may again reopen her doors to the public, closed since September 11, 2001.

Copyright 2004 Yahoo! Inc.

[BigMac]

NY1 News
June 14, 2004

Disaster Drill To Be Held On Ellis Island

To prepare for the reopening of the Statue of Liberty next month, federal authorities are holding a disaster drill on Ellis Island Monday.

The exercise is similar to other exercises held in the city, like one at Shea Stadium.

The National Park Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the city’s Office of Emergency Management will train some 50 workers to search for and rescue victims. They will also learn how to put out fires and give first aid under disaster conditions.

The Statue of Liberty, which has been closed to visitors since the September 11, 2001, attacks, is set to reopen on the Fourth of July, following safety and security upgrades. The island itself reopened three months after the terrorist attacks, but tourists have not been allowed inside the statue. When it reopens, visitors will only be able to tour the museum and take the elevator into the pedestal, and the stairs to Lady Liberty's crown will remain off-limits.

Copyright © 2004 NY1 News

[BigMac]

CNN
June 30, 2004

Statue of Liberty to reopen in August

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Statue of Liberty, which has been closed to the public since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, is set to partially reopen on August 3, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Wednesday.

The reopening will allow visitors to tour the base of the statue, which houses a museum, but access to the statue itself will remain off limits.

Prior to the attacks, visitors could climb to the monument's crown.

The Interior Department said visitors will be allowed to gaze up into the statue's internal structure through a glass ceiling if accompanied by a park ranger.

The partial reopening was first revealed in March by park officials who testified at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

The officials declined to give specifics, saying they did not want to usurp Norton's authority.

But under questioning from lawmakers, National Park Service Deputy Director Don Murphy said a $7 million contribution from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation had helped security, health and safety enhancements at the site.

The site's grounds were closed after the attacks but have since reopened.

© 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

[Kris]

July 1, 2004

Statue of Liberty Pedestal to Reopen Aug. 3

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Visitors will be able to again enter the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 3, after being closed for nearly three years of safety and security improvements, the National Parks Service said yesterday.

Although visitors will not be able to climb to the crown on the statue's head, they will have access to the observation deck at the top of the statue's pedestal, 154 feet above the ground. A glass ceiling at the top of the pedestal will allow visitors to see inside the statue, the service said in a statement.

The staircase to the crown will remain closed, because it doesn't meet current safety and security standards.

To eliminate long lines, the service said it will begin to take reservations for tours on July 22. The telephone number will soon be posted on its Web site, www.nps.gov/stli , the service said. Reservations by Internet will be available by September.

Liberty Island was closed to visitors after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; although the island reopened in December 2001, the public has not been allowed into the statue while security upgrades were undertaken.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

July 31, 2004

Senate Panel Faults Handling of Funds at Statue of Liberty

By MIKE McINTIRE

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/07/31/nyregion/statue.184.jpg
The Statue of Liberty is scheduled to partially reopen on Tuesday.

A nonprofit charity that solicits donations for the Statue of Liberty pays its executives excessively high salaries, has done a poor job overseeing the millions of dollars it collects and has tried to undermine the efforts of other organizations to raise money for the preservation and operation of the national monument, according to Congressional investigators.

The Senate Finance Committee began examining the work of the charity, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, in April after news reports, including articles in The New York Times, raised questions about the organization's role in efforts to partially reopen the statue after it was closed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The articles reported that the foundation had chosen not to finance the reopening with its $30 million endowment, but rather mount a national fund-raising effort.

Committee officials said yesterday that some of their initial findings were troubling, and they sent a letter yesterday to the foundation demanding answers to a number of questions about its spending, the work of its board of directors and the accuracy of some statements made to donors during the fund-raising campaign. The committee said its work would continue.

In a statement yesterday, the foundation did not address the specific questions raised in the Senate committee's letter, but said it would continue cooperating with the investigation. It noted that it had already turned over reams of records, and was confident that the committee would conclude that "the foundation has conducted itself in an entirely appropriate manner and in accordance with the highest standards."

The Finance Committee's actions came as the foundation released its own commissioned report on its operations. The report, which the foundation paid for, concluded that its fund-raising had not unduly delayed the reopening, now set for Aug. 3. The report found that the charity had done good work over the years, had exercised admirable caution in protecting its endowment and had not usurped control of the monument, which is managed by the National Park Service.

The report, prepared by a panel headed by Griffin B. Bell, the former United States attorney general, did find common ground with the Senate committee's inquiry on the issue of the pay packages for the foundation's top executives: both concluded that the packages could not be justified.

Mr. Bell found that the foundation's president, Stephen A. Briganti, had years ago struck an agreement with the board's chairman that allowed him to earn hundreds of thousand of dollars in additional income by working one day a week as an independent consultant to other nonprofits. The report said that this arrangement, which some board members were unaware of, boosted the effective pay rate for Mr. Briganti in excess of his regular salary, which exceeded $300,000 last year.

Mr. Bell's panel also concluded that the foundation, created in 1982 to raise money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty after years of neglect, needed to reassess its mission, role and future, and take steps to improve its overall management structure.

In addition to concerns about salaries, the congressional investigators raised concerns about certain expenses the foundation had incurred, such as $45,000 a year for a dog to chase geese away on the islands, and a recent licensing agreement they said the foundation entered into allowing a company to market whiskey in bottles shaped like the Statue of Liberty.

The Senate committee said that the findings make clear that the foundation is poorly run.

"The Statue of Liberty Foundation board was too often AWOL or uninformed in managing the foundation and ensuring that charitable donations were being used appropriately," Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who is chairman of the Finance Committee, said in a statement. "I'm concerned that the foundation's board may not have been in compliance with tax laws, or even its own bylaws, when it approved high salaries for foundation executives."

In their respective inquiries, the Finance Committee, which oversees the compliance of charities with the nation's tax laws, and the foundation's panel obtained thousands of pages of documents from the foundation and interviewed officials at the foundation, the National Park Service and Department of Interior.

The Bell report concluded, based on its review, that The Times had erred in a front-page article last April that asserted that the foundation's decision to finance the reopening of the statue through fund-raising had delayed the project.

The report said that construction work on the reopening had not begun until April of this year because Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton had not signed off on the project until then. Ms. Norton has said that the fund-raising drive did not delay the timing of her approval.

"The committee found no evidence that the foundation was responsible for any delay in the reopening," the report said.

But a park service official involved in the reopening, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the decision by the foundation to raise money for the reopening inevitably meant the process would take more time. And that decision, the official said, was made well before the final plan reached Ms. Norton's desk for approval.

Indeed, in an interview yesterday, Mr. Bell agreed that the decision to raise money could have had an effect on the pace of the park service's deliberations on plans for the safety and security improvements necessary for the reopening, which went on for months.

"Yes, that does make sense," Mr. Bell said. "Both stories might be correct. I don't doubt that that had something to do with it."

Still, Mr. Bell yesterday stood by the report's conclusion that the foundation's fund-raising was not the cause of any delay.

But Mr. Grassley said the committee had found material in the foundation's records that appeared to contradict the organization's public claim that the fund-raising did not affect the pace of the reopening effort.

He said one foundation document, a set of talking points for the fund-raising campaign, says, in response to the question of when the monument will reopen: "The sooner we can raise the money through this campaign, the sooner the work can be completed."

"The foundation appears to have presented a fund-raising project as necessary to help reopen the statue," Mr. Grassley said yesterday. "Yet at the same time the foundation suggests that the fund-raising did not affect the opening of the statue. The foundation needs to better explain this apparent discrepancy. Donors have a right to answers."

The foundation's decision to raise more funds, rather than use the millions it already had, has been a source of debate, and the Bell report concluded that the foundation was prudent to not dip into its endowment to finance the project. It noted that although the group's bylaws did not restrict it from using the endowment, "the foundation has made several statements binding itself to a policy of preserving the principal.''

The reluctance to not rely on the endowment, given the extraordinary circumstances of the statue being closed, appeared to surprise some people. A senior park service official told Mr. Bell's panel that "he assumed the foundation would use its endowment for the work, and not engage in additional fundraising,'' the report said.

Former Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel, who said he was not contacted by Mr. Bell's panel despite having worked with the foundation for years, was critical of the foundation's decision. He said he was not surprised that the panel did not seek him out, given "that my antipathy toward the foundation as it has been operated has been pretty well known.''

"It appears they had raised, and were sitting on, a significant amount of money that should have been spent on the park,'' said Mr. Hodel.

The Bell report also undertook the question of the losses suffered by the foundation's endowment through its investments. It found that while the foundation's investment managers had turned in below-average returns in recent years, the decline in its endowment was not as dramatic as the foundation's tax returns and financial statements make it appear, because they do not reflect that some money was shifted into safer investments.

The report said this omission caused The Times to reach "the false impression'' that the foundation's endowment losses were larger than they actually were.

The Senate committee, in its investigation, explored the question of whether the foundation had worked to prevent other groups from raising money for the parks service and its monument.

It found, in fact, that when park service had considered allowing another group to also raise money for the statue, Mr. Briganti, the foundation's president, objected to the possible partnerships.

Mr. Briganti, the committee found, wrote a memo to board members last September in which he complained that the foundation was "stabbed in the back'' by the park service's dealings with the other group. As a result, he wrote, he had "halted all work'' on an immigration history project the foundation was planning "until we can have some fund-raising assurances.''

That memo did not surprise Norman Liss, the vice president of the Ellis Island Restoration Commission, a nonprofit organization that consults on issues related to the monument.

Mr. Liss, who said he spoke to Senate Finance Committee investigators, but was not contacted by Mr. Bell's panel, has long complained that the foundation wielded too much control over fund-raising at the park.

"There has been a continual effort by the foundation to prevent anybody from raising money for the statue and Ellis Island but them,'' he said.

In its letter to the foundation, the Senate committee said it found Mr. Briganti's actions "very troubling.''

"It appears that the foundation, which enjoys a special relationship with the park service, is happy to put its own priorities and that of its staff first, before providing benefits to visitors of Ellis Island,'' the committee wrote.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

August 3, 2004

Visitors Can Go Underfoot, but Not to Liberty's Crown

By MIKE McINTIRE

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/08/03/nyregion/03libe.jpg
Visitors will be greeted by a security tent when the Statue of Liberty National Monument reopens. It was closed after Sept. 11, 2001.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/08/03/nyregion/03cnd-stat.450.jpg
Although visitors won't be able to climb to the top of the reopened Statue of Liberty, a new shatterproof glass ceiling allows a look up inside.

On the way to the Statue of Liberty National Monument yesterday, visitors could pick up glossy brochures featuring a cutaway diagram of the statue's interior, complete with an image of tiny tourists ascending the spiral stairs to the crown.

But when the base of the statue reopens to the public today for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, people will have to be content with only their memories, or imaginings, of making the long, claustrophobic climb to the top. Like the torch, which was closed in 1916 after being damaged by a saboteur's bomb, the crown is now off limits.

The National Park Service, which invited members of the press to tour the monument before its reopening, said it concluded after the terrorist attacks that it would be unsafe to allow the public back inside the statue itself. The agency cited the difficulties of evacuating people during an emergency.

Officials were at pains to play down the significance of no longer being able to go inside the statue. Marie Rust, the park service's northeast regional director, went so far as to say that climbing to the crown was "a terrible experience."

"The stairs are narrow, there were crowds - we had 2,000 people going up at one time - it's hot," Ms. Rust said. "It's not safe, it's not secure, and I'll just say this: It's not fun."

Larry Parkinson, an assistant secretary of the Department of Interior, suggested that some people's nostalgic remembrances of a climb to the crown were actually figments of childhood imaginations.

"Most of us think we went to the crown; a lot of us didn't," he said. "I thought I went to the crown, and I hadn't."

As part of the $6.7 million project to upgrade fire safety systems and improve security, the park service chose to limit public access to only the museum and guided tours of the observation balcony below Liberty's feet, about 10 stories above the ground. Glass ceiling panels have been installed in several places at the uppermost level in the statue's base, where one can peer up into the copper-clad interior.

The view is limited to a jumble of metal struts and latticework encircling the narrow, central staircase, which twists up into the darkness. Despite newly installed lighting part of the way up, it is difficult to make out the form of the statue itself.

The decision to close off access to the crown did not sit well with some members of Congress. Reporters returning to Manhattan from Liberty Island yesterday were greeted at the ferry landing by Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representative Anthony D. Weiner, both New York Democrats, who called a news conference to demand that the park service restore full access to the statue.

Calling the trek to the crown "one of the great experiences of being in New York and being in America," Mr. Schumer discounted the concerns about evacuations, and proposed that the park service screen visitors to the statue by using the same terrorist watch lists available to airports.

"There are problems with evacuation everywhere," he said. "In tall buildings, in other places as well, and that doesn't stop us from doing the best we can. It's a lack of focus, a lack of imagination and a lack even of some courage."

Mr. Weiner called the decision to close off the crown "a partial victory for the terrorists."

As part of the security enhancements, visitors must pass through metal detectors before leaving on the ferry bound for Liberty Island, and must submit to a second set of metal and explosive detectors if they want to go inside the monument's base. In addition, touring the monument now requires a reservation.

Outside the statue, two large, temporary staircases made of wood have been added to allow people to descend from the base of the statue, which rests atop an old star-shaped fort, down to ground level in an emergency.

The project to reopen of the statue's base became embroiled in controversy earlier this year amid news reports that the park service chose not to seek federal financing, and turned instead to its nonprofit partner, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The foundation, which has an unrestricted endowment of $30 million, started a $7 million fund-raising campaign "to reopen Lady Liberty."

The foundation and park service have insisted the campaign did not delay the reopening effort. The news reports triggered an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, which last week faulted the foundation for poor management, excessive salaries for its top executives and questionable expenses.

Yesterday, Mr. Schumer said he believed the foundation's president, Stephen A. Briganti, should resign. The foundation did not respond to that suggestion, but issued a statement saying it "is proud of its efforts to make the reopening a reality."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Newsday
August 3, 2004

Lady Liberty's base reopens

Associated Press

Slide Show: Statue of Liberty (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-liberty-gallery,0,6910562.photogallery?coll=nyc-swapbox1)

Poll: Will you climb the Statue? (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-liberty0804,0,1130459.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan)

The Statue of Liberty, hailed in song and speech as a national symbol of freedom and opportunity, returned Tuesday to its status as a haven for huddled masses of tourists as visitors were allowed back inside the landmark for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001.

Tickets for the first trips inside Lady Liberty in almost three years sold out quickly, with some visitors paying scalpers for a spot. Among the early arrivals were two lieutenants from the Italian army, Dario Coleanni and Vincenzo Pepe, who wound up scalping tickets for $20.

"It's my first time in the U.S.," said Coleanni, 26, who's stationed in Rome. "I'm interested in seeing what's important in America: the Statue of Liberty."

While Coleanni and scores of other visitors waited to get inside on a hot August day, the statue was reopened amid much ado on Liberty Island. Interior Secretary Gail Norton headed the list of guests attending the ceremony, which began with a military choir performing.

A military color guard then carried the American flag to the podium. Musical performances included a rendition of George M. Cohan's "It's a Grand Old Flag" before the crowd rose for the national anthem.

"Whether this is your first visit or one of many, I know this will be a memorable one," site superintendent Cynthia Garrett told the visitors. Pepe said she was right.

"Seeing it is the most important thing to do here," the Italian soldier said.

The 152-foot robed female figure with spiky crown and upraised torch became the most familiar symbol of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, welcoming millions of immigrants arriving at nearby Ellis Island and later marking the departure and return of troops from two world wars in Europe.

It won't be business as before -- visitors can go only as high as the statue's feet, from where they can gaze upward, through a glass partition, at the steel girders that brace the hollow interior of the New York harbor landmark.

They can also tour a museum inside the pedestal that tells the story of the statue, from its dedication in 1886 as a gift from France to its rededication after a major overhaul a century later. An alternative tour allows visitors to stroll the promenade atop the star-shaped former fort on which the statue and its pedestal rise some 30 stories above the harbor.

Jean Campbell, a missionary nurse from Salem, N.H., failed in an attempt to get one of the sold-out tickets. She was contented Tuesday to walk around Liberty Island.

"I've been looking for my family history, and this was here when they sailed in to New York," she said.

The reopening of the pedestal to the public went ahead despite new warnings over the weekend of possible terrorist attacks on financial centers in Manhattan, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C.

Tightened security measures at the 117-year-old national monument include a new anti-bomb detection device that blows a blast of air into clothing and then checks for particles of explosive residue. Bomb-sniffing dogs also were present during the preview.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki joined the crowd for the ceremonial event.

"This beacon of hope and liberty is once again open to the public, sending a reassuring message to the world that freedom is alive in New York and shining brighter than ever before," Pataki said.

The Statue of Liberty was sealed off to visitors as a post-Sept. 11 security precaution. The 12-acre Liberty Island reopened to the public two months later, but the statue itself has remained closed.

Larry Parkinson, deputy assistant Interior secretary for law enforcement and security, said it was unlikely that visitors would have access to the statue's interior spiral staircases in the foreseeable future.

Kevin Mason, president of the Circle Line, whose ferries serve the Statue of Liberty and nearby Ellis Island, the historic immigration reception center, from lower Manhattan's Battery Park and Liberty State Park in New Jersey, said he hoped the reopening would help bring back tourists whose numbers fell 45 percent after the 2001 terrorist attacks -- from 4.5 million a year in 2000 to 2.6 million in 2002.

The tours cost $10 a head for adults and $4 for children.

The statue, made of hammered copper the thickness of two pennies, was closed in 1937 for a year of renovations and underwent another major refurbishing for its centennial in 1986.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the second of two terrorist-hijacked jetliners skimmed low over the statue just seconds before it crashed into the World Trade Center's south tower 1 1/2 miles away.

On the Net: Statue of Liberty: http://www.nps.gov/stli/

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

[Kris]

August 4, 2004

Returning to Lady Liberty, and, Yes, Carrying a Torch

By MICHAEL BRICK

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/08/03/nyregion/04lib.l.jpg
Luz Pagan paid her first visit to the Statue of Liberty on Tuesday, the first time that the public had been allowed inside the statue since Sept. 11, 2001. Like Ms. Pagan, a Bronx resident for 35 years, many visitors wore festive attire.

Luz Pagan is 63, of Puerto Rican extraction and short in stature. She is a social worker in the Bronx, her given name means light, and she spends her off days extending what she calls a message "of peace-love power."

"In all parades, Irish, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Italian," she said, "all parades in the city, I'll be there to represent the Statue of Liberty."

By represent, Ms. Pagan means dress as. She arrived outside Castle Clinton in Lower Manhattan yesterday - the first day visitors were allowed inside the real Statue of Liberty since the terrorist attacks of 2001 - wearing a flowing, fibrous dark green gown and crown, and carrying a torch, flag and book.

A friend made the costume for Ms. Pagan shortly after the terror attacks. She has worn the outfit to parades, but this was her first visit to Liberty Island.

"I was waiting for this time that they opened again," she said. "I feel proud."

She bounded past the professionally costumed and the painted people posing for photographs with tourists. The green Statues of Liberty were doing appreciably better than the bronze vaqueros. The statues buzzed noisemakers at the crowds, because painting yourself green, carrying a torch and wearing a robe and crown can get you overlooked in Manhattan, no matter the terror alert level, unless you have a gimmick.

Ms. Pagan clung to the rail on the top deck of the island ferry, the Miss New Jersey. All the seats were taken. The boat rocked in the wake, buzzed by gulls and Coast Guard cutters. The air was salty. A robotic voice admonished people to check the times of their tour reservations, though there had been no mention of a tour, or reservations, at the ticket sales office.