New Jersey, Proud Owner, To Raise Flag On Ellis Island
04
Apr

New Jersey, Proud Owner, To Raise Flag On Ellis Island

With victory still fresh in their border war with New York, the top elected officials of New Jersey planned to journey to Ellis Island — that's Ellis Island, New Jersey — for a bit of ceremonial gloating on the Fourth of July.

In an emphatic demonstration of New Jersey's newly won sovereignty over most of Ellis Island, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and the state's two United States Senators, Robert G. Torricelli and Frank R. Lautenberg, were to raise the New Jersey state flag on the island's sole flagpole to fly below the Stars and Stripes for an Independence Day bill-signing ceremony that will also include the announcement of Ellis Island's new New Jersey ZIP code.

Officials with the National Park Service on Ellis Island initially rebuffed Mrs. Whitman's request to raise the state banner on the Federal flagpole, but they were overruled by more senior Park Service officials after Mr. Torricelli intervened in Washington. The New Jersey flag, in the official colors of buff and Jersey blue and emblazoned with the state's coat of arms, will fly only for the afternoon, but officials on all sides acknowledged that it would provide a symbolic backdrop for a Fourth of July victory dance.

'We're very proud of the history that New Jersey played and that Ellis Island, New Jersey, played in the history of American heritage, and tomorrow is the day all Americans celebrate their heritage and their freedom,'' said Pete McDonough, the Governor's spokesman. ''I wouldn't read too much into this. We're just happy to be there.'' But he also acknowledged that New Jersey officials, particularly Mr. Torricelli, had gone out of their way to mark Ellis Island's first Fourth of July in the Garden State.

In May, the Supreme Court ended a nearly 200-year-old dispute between New York and New Jersey over Ellis Island, ruling in a 6-to-3 decision that nearly 90 percent of the island is New Jersey territory. The High Court ruled that only the original 3-acre island belonged to New York while the 24 acres of landfill that had been added over the years belonged to New Jersey, including part of the historic main immigration building, which is now a museum.

Triumphant New Jersey officials moved swiftly to exercise their authority over the island. Governor Whitman appointed a 13-member advisory commission to consider the island's future while the State Attorney General, Peter G. Verniero, fired off 15 letters to the heads of various state and Federal agencies informing them of the court's decision and urging them to adapt procedures where necessary, including officially adding the island to the New Jersey map.

At the Independence Day ceremony, Mrs. Whitman is to sign a bill extending state veteran's benefits to men and women who served in military operations in Somalia and Bosnia. Mr. McDonough said the Governor would also announce that the postmaster, in recognition of the court's decision, had assigned a New Jersey ZIP code to the island: 07305-1776. (The reference to the nation's birth year was intentional.)

Scott Pferinger, the chief ranger at the national monument complex that includes Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, said he could not recall another flag flying with the Stars and Stripes on Ellis Island, though he said the Red Cross flag had flown under the American Flag on Liberty Island during March, which is Red Cross month. Permission to fly a second flag must be requested by a high Government official and can be granted only by Park Service supervisors at regional or national headquarters, he said.

A National Park Service official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Diane H. Dayson, the Superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum, had objected to raising the New Jersey flag and had pointed out that New York in all of the years that it had sovereignty over Ellis Island had never insisted on raising its state flag. Told of that view, Mr. McDonough replied, ''New York never owned the island.'' He said that Mr. Torricelli began lobbying for the flag-raising after the initial objections were raised.

Ms. Dayson did not return phone calls today, but, through Mr. Pferinger, she said that parks officials in Washington had approved the flag-raising.

The Park Service official, who telephoned a reporter because he objected to the decision, criticized the New Jersey politicians as playing politics with the landmark.

''To put on this hollow display of false patriotism, what is this going to say to the New Yorkers who have been contributing to this site?'' the official said. ''It's just some empty display to show New York that New Jersey won.''