Mayor Bloomberg

Mayor Bloomberg declares Times Square 'safe as can be' for New Year's

By ADAM LISBERG and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, December 31st 2008, 6:57 AM
Officials look up in wonder as the 6-ton Waterford crystal Times Square News Year's Eve ball is illuminated and raised over 1 Times Square Tuesday. Hermann for News

Officials look up in wonder as the 6-ton Waterford crystal Times Square News Year's Eve ball is illuminated and raised over 1 Times Square Tuesday.

Bill, Hil, Mike - and the Jonas Brothers!

A former President, a would-be President-turned-future-secretary­of state, the mayor and the hottest boy band in the nation will help ring in 2009 Wednesday night. And so will thousands of cops.

Bill and Sen. Hillary Clinton will stand with Mayor Bloomberg in Times Square and lead more than a million merry­makers in saying goodbye to a trying year.

The Clintons will push the button that lowers the sparkling New Year’s Eve ball during the final 60 seconds of 2008, setting off wild celebrations.

With the Clintons, the Jonas Brothers band and the mayor on hand, not to mention the crush of revelers, cops will have their hands full.

Bloomberg said that the NYPD is ready.

"Times Square is so secure, it’s the last thing to worry about," he said. "There'll be a lot of police that you see [and] there’ll be a lot of police that you don't see."

All 1,129 cops who graduated from the Police Academy Tuesday will be deployed in Times Square, as well as counter­terror teams and Secret ­Service agents.

Neither backpacks nor alcohol will be permitted in Times Square, where temperatures could plummet to just 17 degrees by midnight.

Five minutes before midnight, 1,000 balloons with the words "Joy," "Hope" and "2009" will drift down onto the Times Square crowd. The 12,000-pound crystal ball will hit bottom at the stroke of midnight.

"American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest will oversee the night's musical program. Longtime emcee Dick Clark, who suffered a stroke four years ago, will make a cameo.

jlemire@nydailynews.com