Museum delay upsets kin of 9/11 victims

They were promised a place to mourn, display photographs and educate children, their own and others', about exactly what was lost on 9/11. Today, relatives of those killed still have no completion date for the museum that is to be built alongside the Sept. 11 memorial at Ground Zero -- and many are upset.

"The memorial is open, but that's only half the tribute to those who were killed," said Patricia Reilly, who lost her sister in the attacks. "The museum is the place where they're going to tell the story about the people -- who they were, where they were, what they were doing and what happened to them that day."

Construction of the museum -- originally scheduled to open on the 11th anniversary of the attacks -- has largely ground to a halt amid a financial dispute between the Port Authority, which owns the site, and the foundation that controls the memorial and museum. After months of little obvious progress, some family members are increasingly worried that the powers that share control of the area are backsliding into the kind of politically driven dysfunction that once paralyzed the site.

"They shouldn't allow disagreement to get in the way," Reilly said. She especially wants the museum to be completed so she can go there to visit the thousands of fragments of human remains too damaged to identify with DNA testing. No trace of her sister, Lorraine Lee, who worked on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center's south tower, has been identified.

"We were supposed to get a contemplative area nearby where we could sit and pray, visit," she said. "I'm waiting for the remains to find their final resting place."

Work has been slowed since late last year, when the subcontractors at the site stopped getting paid. The Port Authority claimed the Sept. 11 memorial foundation owed it $300 million for infrastructure and revised project costs, while the foundation argued the port instead owed it money because of project delays. Three powerful political figures have been entangled in the dispute: The governors of New York and New Jersey control the port, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the foundation's chairman.

Last month, Port Authority executive director Patrick Foye said there had been "significant progress" toward a resolution, but no deal had materialized. On Thursday, a spokesman for the port would say only that discussions were continuing. A spokesman for the foundation declined to comment about the families' concerns.

Officials have said publicly there is no way to complete the museum by this year's anniversary of the attacks.