STATUE OF LIBERTY Closed since 9/11, pedestal will reopen later this summer

The statue itself will remain closed for security reasons.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Staring up at the Statue of Liberty, 10-year-old Brent Coats was green with envy.
Although his big sister Megan was allowed to go inside the statue during a visit in July 2001, Brent had to settle Tuesday for an exterior view. The 151-foot statue has been closed to the public since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I was very disappointed," said Brent, of Westmoreland, Tenn. "Liberty means freedom to me."
The National Park Service has vowed to restore the public's ability to enter the statue's six-story pedestal this summer.
The event will be commemorated on Independence Day this Sunday with a special addition to the Macy's fireworks display, but the pedestal's reopening will not happen until late July or August.
And even then the inside of the 118-year-old statue will remain closed for security reasons.
"The question has been asked, 'Are you saying no one can ever, ever go back in the statue again?"' said Brian Feeney, parks service spokesman. "We're not saying that."
The problem is that the interior of the statue, which used to be accessible by a narrow spiral staircase, cannot be adequately secured.
Pedestal improvements
The pedestal, which contains the Statue of Liberty Museum, has had $7 million in improvements. They include improved lighting, a new fire suppression system and fire walls. The pedestal also will have an outdoor observation deck, where visitors will be able to walk around the statue's perimeter, and several undisclosed security measures, Feeney said.
The entire 58-acre island, which is accessible by ferries from Battery Park in New York City and Liberty State Park in Jersey City, was closed from the attacks until Dec. 20, 2001.
Last February, the nonprofit Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation announced the planned reopening, along with a fund-raising drive to avoid cutting into the foundation's $20 million endowment. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others criticized the plan for restricting access to the pedestal.
Feeney and a foundation spokeswoman, Peg Zitko, said a July Fourth reopening of the pedestal, regardless of its symbolic value, had never been a goal of the Park Service, which developed the new safety and security plans, or of the foundation, which is paying for them.