Two local architects have donated the design for a new pedestal and plaza for the Statue of Liberty at Alki. Mayor Greg Nickels has pledged $50,000. An engraving company in Tacoma is ready to personalize a thousand bricks. The city will hire a contractor this spring to build it.

Nearly everything is in place.

Except for the last $64,000.

And the City of Seattle has set a deadline of Jan. 15.

"We are doing a full court press to raise the funds," said Paul and Libby Carr, co-chairs for the Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project.

Members of the committee have handed out nearly 9,000 brochures at grocery stores and ferry docks. They cajoled 50 West Seattle businesses to put up their displays seeking donations, and persuaded restaurants to insert flyers selling bricks with the diners' bills. As community service for their citizenship badges, they got John Demaree's Webelos in Cub Scout Pack No. 282 to hand out a few hundred more brochures over the weekend.

They are inviting major donors to a gala event Dec. 27 at Duke's Chowder House. They convinced Mayor Nickels, City Council member Tom Rasmussen and KIRO radio's Dave Ross to attend.

Paul and Libby are even willing to dress up as Santa and Mrs. Claus to sell bricks as holiday gifts.

Anything to complete the Statue of Liberty plaza.

The committee is running out of time. The city's pledge is only in the 2008 budget. Libby said she was told the project must be put out for bids in January, so construction can be complete before the summer crowds converge on Alki.

Emelie East, a senior policy advisor and director of council relations in the mayor's office, gave her a deadline of Jan. 15. She said only with finalized figures can Seattle Parks and Recreation begin their community outreach and design, and complete construction this year.

The replacement of the vandalized statue and building of a new pedestal were supposed to be completed earlier this year. The project began as one of many managed by the under director Adam Sheridan. Starting in 2003, the Northwest Program for the Arts sold enough bricks to have the statue recast at The Bronze Works, a foundry in Tacoma. In November 2006, Sheridan asked the Carrs to volunteer for the statue unveiling committee, but the project languished and the old pedestal stood empty for 14 months. Alki neighbors felt the statue had been gone for years.

Paul and Libby formed the Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project committee in July. Half of the committee's dozen members live in their Alki-front apartment building.

With a promise from the mayor's office to build a new pedestal and plaza, the committee returned the recast statue to the old pedestal. At its unveiling Sept. 11, Nickels pledged $50,000, while the committee must raise the balance of the construction costs, estimated in September at $157,000.

Architects Chris Ezzell and Matt Hutchins donated hundreds of hours in community presentations, park department meetings and design work. Their vision replaces the pedestal, three benches and buckling asphalt. First priority is a taller, more slender pedestal, less climbable to kids and vandals. Next, a new plaza will be paved with commemorative bricks, etched by Tacoma engraving company, Kenadar. The new plan includes 14 benches. Finally, a berm and landscaping flank three paths leading through the plaza.

Once the city releases their funds on Jan. 1, Seattle Parks and Recreation will schedule meetings, seeking neighborhood involvement in a design that can be built with the funds available. Dewey Potter, communications manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation, said construction will start "early to mid-summer, the prime construction months."

"We will build whatever, with the money we have in hand," said Potter. "We have to go through the process to reach a consensus. (The committee's design) is not vetted with the community."

This means the whole project may not be built, only the parts the money can pay for.

"It was never the intent of this committee to build it in stages," Libby said. She and Paul want to build it all, and finish it within the year.

So far, the committee has sold over a thousand bricks.

"There's room for six thousand," Paul said. "We'll never run out of bricks to sell."

They've sold a bench to Ted Nicoloudakis, owner of Bamboo Bar and Grill, and Pegasus Pizza.

"I'm excited about it," Nicoloudakis said, who's owned Pegasus for 15 years. "It's time for me to give back to the community."

Paul and Libby sold another bench to a private donor, and have potentials buyers for two more. The three families with names at the existing benches near the old pedestal will have their plaques moved to new benches.

"Seven more benches to go," Libby said. Two landscape markers have also been sold.

Starbucks Coffee, and the city's Department of Neighborhoods, will join the City of Seattle as major donors thanked on the plaque placed on the new pedestal.

Accounting on December 13 showed $91,000 has been donated or pledged. Last Friday, Libby had pledges for a few more bricks and another bench, bringing the total to over $93,000. They have 59 percent of construction costs.

Paul and Libby are looking, asking, begging for $64,000 more.

"If we sold 700 more bricks, it would pay for the rest of the project," Paul said. "Or, if someone wants to write us a single check for the full amount, we'd happily take that."

All donations are tax deductible. The Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project has 501(c)(3) status through Urban Sparks, a non-profit organization which manages its donations.

"We're thinking positive," Libby said, "that we'll raise all the money by mid-January."

Find more information or make donations at www.sealady.org, by e-mailing info@sealady.org, or calling 938-8720 or 938-8721.