NEW YORK – The memorial museum planned for Ground Zero might charge admission, it was revealed Wednesday.
But Gretchen Dykstra, head of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, vowed to the New York City Council there would “never” be any charge to visit the memorial itself.
Dykstra said she would “strenuously” urge her board to charge for admission to the museum, citing operating costs – for the memorial, museum, visitors center and tree-filled plaza – that may exceed $40 million a year.
“I think it is my responsibility to tell the board that, to be fiscally responsible, we need to have a handle on how we will pay,” she added.
She’ll also recommend that victims’ immediate family members and Sept. 11 first responders be admitted free “whenever they want.”
Still, Battalion 11 Chief Jim Riches, whose firefighter son and namesake died at Ground Zero, said he was appalled to hear admission might be charged and added that the federal government should cover all costs.
“It’s like Pearl Harbor,” he told the New York Daily News. “It’s not a museum – it’s American history.”
The prospect of paid admission at Ground Zero also alarmed Councilman Alan Gerson, whose Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee conducted Wednesday’s hearing.
The downtown Democrat, who previously urged a foundation board member to avoid admission fees “at any cost,” told Dykstra Ground Zero had “a claim for federal support.”
The site uniquely represents “an attack on this country by a terrorist power abroad,” he said.
The Port Authority has been preserving at Kennedy Airport more than 1,000 artifacts from the attack – some of which may be displayed in the museum.
They include a flattened taxi, burned fire trucks and part of the TV antenna that topped the north tower.
Dykstra pointed to the Oklahoma City National Memorial, commemorating the bombing that killed 168 people in 1995 – which now charges adults $8 to visit its memorial museum.
She noted that some prominent museums, such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, have free admission because they’re federally funded.
In an informal survey of 118 visitors to the Church Street viewing area overlooking Ground Zero, 90 percent told foundation staffers last summer they’d pay to visit the museum if the money supported operations.
Meanwhile, Lower Manhattan Development Corp. President Stefan Pryor said a “library of memory” would be located within the south tower footprint.
He described it as “a quiet and contemplative room for individual personal tributes from family members, where every life lost will be expressed in a distinct and unique way.”
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(c) 2006, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-03-29-06 2213EST
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