It's been more than two decades since the September 11th attacks, and the Empty Sky Memorial at Liberty State Park in Jersey City is meant to serve as the state's official monument to honor New Jerseys victims.

But the memorial is in the middle of a fight between state officials.

September 11th, family members and advocates as well as the designer over the conditions of the memorial site.

So, is the memorial actually finished?

And is there funding to spur any redesign or restoration?

Senior political correspondent David Cruz went to the memorial recently to investigate.

Almost by default, the Empty Sky Memorial at Liberty State Park is the most visited memorial in the state with an estimated 5 million people walking through it in a year.

It's the centerpiece of a 2 and a half acre specifically landscaped site that its original designers and a panel of 911 family members expected to look like this with iron cladding surrounding the entire structure and inscriptions on the exterior.

Instead, the memorial today, 14 years after it was dedicated, looks like this.

unckempt, neglected, and in decline.

This memorial is my life's work.

Jessica Jamro is the original designer of Empty Sky.

When she sees what's here, the naked cracked exterior, the grove of dead trees, weeds growing in light fixtures that don't work, and broken information kiosk that could let anyone know what this was supposed to look like.

It can be a lot.

We're sitting here in front of it.

There there's a big the exterior wall of this place looks like the exterior of a prison to be honest.

Well, David, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that it feels like that.

And I feel I feel that it feels abandoned and I feel like it feels like a disgrace.

If if you go there and you see what was what is there and what the original concept was, uh, you could see how people could be upset, especially people whose family members are ingrained in that shrine.

Dennis Halian is a former state trooper who lost friends and colleagues on 911 and in the years after.

He says victims and their families deserve a little more respect than the state is showing.

It's a shame because I think I think the folks that are uh you know putting out that the project is complete, you know, if they had loved ones that were part of what occurred at 911, I think they'd have a different tone.

I didn't even know that memorial was there.

Cheryl Cooper Foreman's longtime partner died on 911, too.

He was a Port Authority cop.

She said she appreciates this site for what it could be.

It's nice.

They just need to finish it and make it look presentable.

Like anything involving state bureaucracy, the story of this memorial, what it looks like and what remains to be done is complicated.

There were $14 million in cost overruns from the beginning, say state officials.

Funding ran out.

The state rushed a finish up plan that changed elements of the original design.

They tried to execute a separate contract and didn't consult Jamro.

Like I said, complicated.

Last month, Treasury and D said they considered the project complete.

It should be noted that the Attorney General's office, the Department of State, and the Port Authority all have a piece of the purview over what happens here.

So, um I feel as though the interdep departmental nature of this project is what collapses it from getting anywhere forward.

Uh because D has ideas and treasury has ideas and people agree and people disagree and you know sometimes the governor really really cares and um you know sometimes there are other things going on um in their agenda.

the the families were promised a befitting memorial to honor their loved ones and this is not what it is right now.

Jamro says she has contractual rights of approval to any changes in the design.

Officials we talked to at Treasury and DP acknowledge that the memorial is incomplete.

It's unclear if they acknowledge Jamraz's claim to final approval over changes.

Jamra says she's looking for a hero, but with no money in the new state budget to get the project done, there doesn't appear to be one in sight.

The DP says the plaza surrounding the Central Railroad Terminal and the rest of the grounds surrounding the memorial are due for a major makeover.

The designer and some 9/11 families hope that by then this memorial will finally be complete.

at Liberty State Park.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.