Flight 93 Memorial News

Offer expected soon on key Flight 93 memorial plot
Dan Nephi, Associated Press 

PITTSBURGH  The National Park Service expects to   make an offer next week 
for a key piece of land for a memorial to mark the site in western Pennsylvania 
where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The land, roughly 275 acres, includes the site where the  airplane crashed, 
and the property owner has been accused of refusing to sell  for a reasonable 
amount. The land is owned by Svonavec Inc., a quarry company, whose 
treasurer has repeatedly denied he's looking for a windfall.

Mike Svonavec said he was previously offered $250,000, which he rejected 
as unfair. Gas and oil rights alone are worth more than that, he said. However, 
he has not said what he thinks the land is worth.Past appraisals "didn't 
adequately look at the resources," park service spokesman David Barna 
said Friday.

"What I've been told is, we're going to have something we can present 
next week," Barna said.

Svonavec said Friday that he looks forward to getting the appraisal.

Construction of the $58 million, 2,200-acre permanent memorial and national 
park near rural Shanksville in Somerset County is scheduled to begin later this 
year.

Last month, relatives of the victims asked the Bush Administration to seize 
the land needed for the memorial, saying without it the memorial would likely 
not be complete for the 10th anniversary of the crash in 2011.

The Bush Administration was "very reluctant to use eminent domain to take 
private property," Barna said.

Barna said he understands the families' desire that the land needed for the 
memorial be obtained before Bush leaves office. But, he said, the Park 
Service is not tied to that schedule.

Negotiations for land acquisition are complex, Barna said. He said the Park 
Service hasn't been dragging its feet and that not owning the land hasn't 
hindered planning of the memorial.

About 75 percent of land needed for the memorial has been acquired by 
the Park Service and the Families of Flight 93, according to the family group. 
A message left for organization was not immediately returned Friday.

Acquiring the needed land by the spring would still be enough time for part 
of the memorial to be in place by the 10th anniversary, Barna said.

Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco on 
Sept. 11, 2001, when it was diverted by hijackers. The official 9/11 
Commission report said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried 
to wrest control of the cockpit.