State and federal officials are engaged in talks aimed at reopening the Statue of Liberty, a Cuomo administration official said Friday.

The official said the state is working with parks officials to try to determine the cost of a plan to reopen the popular visitors’ destination in New York Harbor. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and no deal has been reached.

New York has 33 sites under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, which have been shut since Oct. 1 because of the partial federal government shutdown. The sites include the statue and nearby Ellis Island, which has been closed for repairs since Superstorm Sandy last year.

Governors in at least four other states have asked for authority to reopen parks within their borders, citing economic losses from closures.

“It is just terrific news that the governor of New York has stepped forward to help us reopen the Statue of Liberty,” said Bradford Hill, president of the company that operates the gift shop and food service at both the statue and Ellis Island.

Hill said his company, Evelyn Hill, has laid off 110 employees because of the shutdown. He estimated that 152,000 potential visitors have been unable to visit since Oct. 1.

The statue is normally open seven days a week. The 82-year-old company would like to bring its staff back immediately and could reopen tomorrow morning, Hill said Friday. He said he had been told that the park service had been planning to open Ellis Island in some fashion Oct. 28.

Hill estimated his firm has lost about $750,000 in sales from the shutdown.

Statue Cruises, which in conjunction with National Park Service runs boats from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, gets about 7,000 to 10,000 passengers on an average day. Nancy Hine, an employee, said Friday that the boats are getting about 3,000 daily since the shutdown. All they can offer now is a one-hour tour of the harbor, which includes floating near the statue so tourists can take pictures.

Manish Tripathi, a 28-year-old tourist from Delhi, India, took one of the abbreviated cruises.

“It was not great. You could not even get that close to get a good picture,” she said. “When we see America in the movies it was always the Statue of Liberty. Without the statue, it doesn’t feel totally like America. It’s not the same.”

Not everyone’s business is hurting. Orlando Cuello works at All Tours and Attractions, which has a contract with New York Water Taxi to provide harbor tours. They never have been able to provide service right to the statue, and they have taken advantage of the level playing field.

“We have more people coming,” Cuello said. “We can get them close to the statue. We stop and they take pictures for 10 to 15 minutes. People like it.”

(AP)