The majority of the crash site area in Shanksville, PA, where Flight 93 crashed is still owned by the private landowners who held title when the plane crashed there.

The Park Service entered into contracts with the landowners to open the area to the public and a temporary memorial was set up there. The long term plan is to purchase the land and build a permanent memorial park there.

Mike Svonavec, owner of 273 acres of the 1,300 acres planned for a final park site and who owns the land where the temporary memorial exists and the actual crash site exists, has asked for approximately $10 million for his land. However, he has stated that he will not ask for any money for the land where the exact crash happened where the current temporary memorial exists. Thus, he desires to donate that parcel with the final deal.

Svonavec wishes to deal only with the Park Service for the sale of his lands and has refused offers made by "Families of Flight 93," a family survivor group that wants to set up a permanent memorial and park there. The group offered the high end of what they view as the fair market value in their eyes.

The ordinary value of the land in that part of Somerset County, PA, is approximately $1,000 to $2,000 an acre. When the $10 million asking price is divided by acre, the current asking price is almost $37,000 an acre. Thus, the survivor group is calling Svonavec a price gouger and exploiter.

Svonavec also recently put out a donation box asking for donations. He has been paying a private company $10,000 per month for private security since February of this year. Federal funding lapsed for policing/guarding the property in February. He also says that he is incurring other losses on taxes and cancelled leases.

Again, the survivor group and some talk show people have called him exploitative for doing this because it is cutting into donations that could be used for the permanent memorial. The Park Service, the survivor group and some talk show types have claimed that there has been very little vandalism or other problems at the site and therefore there is no need for Svonavec to perform that service.

The donation box was just closed because Governor Rendell of PA pledged $120,000 from the state for hiring security at the site over the next two years.

My sentiments are that this situation is a mess.

I don't villainise Svonavec as some have done.

First, I find the arguments that Svonavec shouldn't need to police his property as made by the Park Service and the survivor group to be gratuitous and ungrateful BS. He has opened his property for the public due to obvious public request when he wasn't legally required to do that. Naturally that means that the land needs policing. It is nonsense to claim that nobody would ever possibly vandalise the place and/or run it down and degrade it due to so many people moving about the premesis. If that were so there would be no need for a Park Service. One reason so few problems have happened there is because security existed and now he personally pays for it.

I am grateful that Governor Rendell has stepped in and offered to pick up the tab but as I see it that: 1) the federal government should be picking up the tab and have the Park Service police it, and 2) meanwhile use eminent domain to acquire the property and then build a permanent memorial and park on it to be policed by the Park Service. The failure to take these steps, IMO, is inexcusable.

The issue of the fair market value has far more grey area IMO. On the surface it may seem that Svonavec is gouging with a huge asking price per acre for his land.

However, I think many are being insincere that his land is really worth only $1,000-$2,000 per acre. That was before September 11 and obviously his particular land is worth far more now given what happened there. He is not asking for any money for the actual crash spot. Moreover, the sought park is much larger than just the actual crash spot. I ask myself: what would someone or something like McDonald's pay for that land near the crash spot?

The survivor group, just as with the security issue, seems to feel entitled to accuse him of being a sleaze by not forfeiting his property below its real value (and as mentioned, feeling entitled to have him keep it open and bear the costs in the meanwhile before settling cheap). I cannot agree. I likewise lost a relative in 9.11 at the World Trade Center. Whilst tragic, it does not mean that I have some implicit moral entitlement to dictate how the WTC property should be memorialised and that its leaseholders, Silverstein Properties and Westfield America, should pick up all the costs, lose control and accept all the personal losses of losing that site to accomodate those opinions.

It would be a nice gesture if he would donate or bargain-basement sell all that land, but I cannot fault him for asking for the fair market value of it. That is still a reasonable request of any person.

Again, I fault the federal government. This park has national significance and therefore they should have been at the forefront of this issue. This is now June 2007 and this event happened nearly 6 years ago. Right after this happened in September 2001, they should have acted to take this land by eminent domain and pay whatever the fair market value is either by agreeing on a value and settling with the landowners or paying the value established by a judge or jury in an eminent domain trial. Meanwhile, they should be policing it and taking care of it until it is acquired. Then, they should do all of that and build a permanent memorial on it and keep it as a national park policed by the Park Service.

AP Wire | 06/12/2007 | Pa. grant to fund security at Flight 93 crash site

FOXNews.com - Owner Seeks $10 Million for Flight 93 Memorial Land - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Michael Smerconish | More turbulence for Flight 93 | Daily News | 06/14/2007

Flight 93 Donation Box Causes Major Controversy - News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh

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The media's perception and therefore America's perception of the land owner is that he is trying to exploit the situation.

The perception cannot be avoided in today's media climate where all the profit driven agencies are fishing for a scandal wherever they can find one. This guy is going to be unnecessarily harassed by an action that is far from criminal.

We should all step back, however and witness our own huge hypocrisy in the matter. Because were we in the land owner's shoes, we would also hold out for more money.

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Congratulations President-Elect Obama

What gets me is that there's the perception that he has some obligation to sell the land...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":

I agree with O'sullivan. The man should not be required to sell his land at below resale value. There are all kinds of companies who profited off 9/11. How about flag makers or bumper sticker makers etc? Its not fair for people to vilianize this man.

He sounds like a Capitalist to me. More power to him

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

President George W. Bush, 8-5-2004

Carolina Politics Online

THIS IS REAL HOPE AND CHANGE!

This guy deserves to get top dollar fro HIS land, but...

Giuliani has made tens of millions of dollars from public appearances in which he is paid to speak about 9/11.

Shame on him.

He has also made millions off of buying defaulted loans from impoverished nations and then forcing them to pay the full amount.

Again, shame on him.

What's the point of the 'edit' button after clicking the initial 'submit reply'? It always reverts back to the unedited version anyway.

Any help?

What a stupid little post.

Giuliani has nothing to do with this topic...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":

People rate goods different.
Apples are for some people nothing worth, while others would buy them for 5 Dollar. Thus, objects haven`t an objective price. The marked price is only the point, were demand and suplly are equal. This doesn`t mean, that this point is fair for all people.

I assume, that the land-owner has the right to demand as much money as he thinks the land is worth.

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Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else

Claude Frédéric Bastiat

Giuliani has EVERYTHING to do with this thread!

People are up in arms about this land-owner guy trying to make money off his land, and he will certainly be slammed for trying to profit from 9/11. How much Giuliani has profited from 9/11 is very much relevant. Perhaps his profits from buying defaulted loans from third world countries is a bit off the point, but his exploitation of 9/11 is VERY much fair game in this conversation.

Your signature is poster size. That's way too big. Your signature shouldn't look like a screensaver on my monitor lol

I don`t think, that it`s an exploitation if he gets money for public appearences.
Also the media profits with their reports about 9/11. Profits in this case is only a signal for people, what information, reports or speeches others want to hear.

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Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else

Claude Frédéric Bastiat

Groundbreaking New 9/11 Film "September Clues" reveals the truth about 9/11.

See September Clues in the following five 10-minute segments:
(more to be made)


SEPTEMBER CLUES part1 - LiveVideo.com

SEPTEMBER CLUES part2 - LiveVideo.com

SEPTEMBER CLUES part3 - LiveVideo.com

SEPTEMBER CLUES part4 - LiveVideo.com

SEPTEMBER CLUES part5 - LiveVideo.com

==========================

My opinion on these videos:

If you don't have time to watch all of them, I'd recommend parts 1 and 5. Those two parts offer NEW ANALYSIS and clear evidence of TV-Fakery.

From a plastic nosecone going in one side of the steel/concrete building and coming out the other, to the mysterious 17 second time difference between the seismic events and official "strike" times, these videos irrefutably prove TV-Fakery.

These videos have become very popular on the internet, have been linked to from rense.com (before they took it down), and also on indymedia. With TV-Fakery being the **obvious common sense reaction** from these videos, the full truth exposure of 9/11 may be closer than we think! But this will only happen if each of us do our part in exposing it.

@CB_brooklyn

It seems, that some people like to step in the footprints of Fred Leuchter and Ernst Zündel (the guys who believed, that they prooved that the holocaust never happend).

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Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else

Claude Frédéric Bastiat

We've got enough of these conspiracy threads elsewhere. Stick to the topic please.

I don't understand why the survivors group would think that they're in any way entitled to the site. Did the survivors of the Pentagon or Twin Towers force anyone to sell or give them the land those buildings are on?!!!

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"