whatkindoffreshhell
Veteran
By Dan Eggen | The Washington Post
8:55 PM CST, December 27, 2008
WASHINGTON -- It has been more than seven years since 20-year-old Deora Bodley and 39 other passengers and crew died in the fiery crash of United Airlines Flight 93, their hijacked plane disintegrating in a grove of hemlock trees outside Shanksville, Pa.
Most of the remains from the tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, were never recovered, making the bowl-shaped crash site in the western Pennsylvania countryside an unofficial cemetery and, for surviving relatives, sacred ground.
But efforts to buy property for a national Flight 93 memorial have bogged down in federal red tape and a protracted land dispute, angering family members and risking plans to hold a dedication ceremony on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The delays have prompted an advocacy group, Families of Flight 93, to ask President Bush to intervene personally during his final weeks in office and to allow the federal government to seize the land needed for the memorial and to allocate part of the money for the project.
Even without any formal facilities, up to 140,000 people visit the site annually, according to the National Park Service. A temporary memorial includes ball caps, signs, benches made by schoolchildren and other handmade testimonials. The site was moved farther away from the crash area this year because of a dispute with a landowner.
But much like faltering efforts to build a monument at Ground Zero in New York, the Pennsylvania project has been dogged by delays and, most important, a simmering dispute over a 273-acre tract that includes most of the crash site. The quarry company that owns the land, Svonavec Inc. of Somerset, has rejected a $250,000 offer from the Park Service, as well as $750,000 from Families of Flight 93, according to documents and interviews.
After Svonavec rebuffed the initial federal offer, the Park Service commissioned a second appraisal that was rejected internally and never released because it did not meet federal standards, according to Dan Wenk, a Park Service deputy director, who said a third appraisal, begun earlier this year, is to be completed by Jan. 5.
8:55 PM CST, December 27, 2008
WASHINGTON -- It has been more than seven years since 20-year-old Deora Bodley and 39 other passengers and crew died in the fiery crash of United Airlines Flight 93, their hijacked plane disintegrating in a grove of hemlock trees outside Shanksville, Pa.
Most of the remains from the tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, were never recovered, making the bowl-shaped crash site in the western Pennsylvania countryside an unofficial cemetery and, for surviving relatives, sacred ground.
But efforts to buy property for a national Flight 93 memorial have bogged down in federal red tape and a protracted land dispute, angering family members and risking plans to hold a dedication ceremony on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The delays have prompted an advocacy group, Families of Flight 93, to ask President Bush to intervene personally during his final weeks in office and to allow the federal government to seize the land needed for the memorial and to allocate part of the money for the project.
Even without any formal facilities, up to 140,000 people visit the site annually, according to the National Park Service. A temporary memorial includes ball caps, signs, benches made by schoolchildren and other handmade testimonials. The site was moved farther away from the crash area this year because of a dispute with a landowner.
But much like faltering efforts to build a monument at Ground Zero in New York, the Pennsylvania project has been dogged by delays and, most important, a simmering dispute over a 273-acre tract that includes most of the crash site. The quarry company that owns the land, Svonavec Inc. of Somerset, has rejected a $250,000 offer from the Park Service, as well as $750,000 from Families of Flight 93, according to documents and interviews.
After Svonavec rebuffed the initial federal offer, the Park Service commissioned a second appraisal that was rejected internally and never released because it did not meet federal standards, according to Dan Wenk, a Park Service deputy director, who said a third appraisal, begun earlier this year, is to be completed by Jan. 5.
