Governors seek fed's help on 9/11 memorial

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NEW YORK, June 17 (UPI) -- The governors of New York and New Jersey asked the National Park Service for financial and technical help for the finance-plagued Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum.

Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York said the assistance would help bring sustained stability to the memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States located at Ground Zero in New York, The (Woodland Park, N.J.) Record reported Saturday.

"The September 11th Memorial and Museum is a site where one of our greatest national tragedies occurred and it should be protected and managed as such in order to preserve its place in our nation's history," the governors said in a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

The governors' request for financial and technical support was short of demands by some of the victims' families for the National Park Service to takeover the facility, The Record said.

The non-profit foundation running the memorial has been in a financial dispute with the Port Authority, the property's owner, prompting delays for the museum's opening. Critics also have complained that the foundation has been paying excessive salaries.