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| Debate surrounds annual $60 mn cost |
| Debate surrounds annual $60 mn cost of 9/11 memorial
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 11-September-2012
1:27:5 AM |
| A debate over balancing the need to honour the memory of September 11 with the enormous costs of running a memorial and museum at ground zero has been reawakened on the eve of the attacks' 11th anniversary, as officials faced questions on Monday over the project's expected $60 million-a-year operating budget and an agreement paving the way for the museum's completion was reached.
The number comes on top of the $700 million construction cost of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. A report on Sunday by The Associated Press noted that $12 million a year would be spent on security, more than the entire operating budgets of Gettysburg National Military Park and the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who leads the board of the nonprofit foundation that controls the museum and memorial, on Monday called the memorial's operating cost a necessity for security and other costs unique to hosting millions of visitors a year on the reborn site of two terror attacks, in 1993 and 2001.
Some congressional Democrats underscored their efforts to help get federal money to cover some of the operating cost, while a Republican senator reiterated his opposition. Even some victims' family members are divided over whether the annual price tag represents the price of paying tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost or the cost of unnecessary grandeur.
At ground zero, several visitors on Monday to the memorial plaza were surprised but not put off by the $60 million-a-year figure.
"Really?" said Pat Lee, a Walmart manager from Atlanta. But, she said, "I don't think the money is too much. Because it's important to keep alive the memory of what happened."
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