Meeting Space Santa Clarita - U.S. Drops Plan On Screening Of Statue Visitors

Source - http://www.nytimes.com/
By - PATRICK McGEEHAN
Category - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

In the staredown at New York City Hall over the Statue of Liberty, the National Park Service blinked.

 The Park Service had planned to have visitors screened on Ellis Island, rather than in Manhattan, when the statue reopens on July 4. But Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner, has been objecting to that move for more than two years.

Mr. Kelly wanted the security operation to remain on the promenade in Battery Park, where it had been since the statue and Ellis Island reopened to visitors after the Sept. 11 attacks. The New York Police Department was uncomfortable with allowing tourists to board ferries to the statue without first being checked for weapons and explosives.

On Monday, Sally Jewell, the secretary of the interior, notified Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of the decision. She said the Park Service would erect a temporary screening center containing X-ray machines and magnetometers in Battery Park, but might have to leave it there for several years before a permanent solution could be devised.

The location of the screening post has long been a source of controversy. The Battery Conservancy, the organization that operates Battery Park, has tried for years to have it removed. But that did not happen until Hurricane Sandy swamped the security tent in October, ruined the equipment it housed and forced the closing of the statue.

In a letter on Monday, Secretary Jewell asked Mr. Bloomberg to provide a letter rescinding a 2010 request he made to the Park Service to vacate Battery Park. Mr. Bloomberg agreed. “It’s the right decision and an example of government agencies working together to achieve practical solutions,” he said in a statement.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, who also opposed moving the screening, said, “This solution wisely avoids any trade-off between speed-of-opening and optimum security.”

He added that the statue was vital to New York’s maintaining its pre-eminence “as the tourist capital of America,” and said that with the Park Service’s announcement, “it can continue to safely draw people from around the world.”