‘Difficult’ week for Flight 93 landowner

By KIRK SWAUGER
The Tribune-Democrat

SOMERSET June 09, 2007 11:31 pm

— Mike Svonavec suddenly has gone from quietly running a rock quarry near New Centerville to the eye of a national storm over contentious negotiations for land his family-operated company owns at the Flight 93 memorial.
For the unassuming 51-year-old from Somerset, it has been a trying, often frustrating week.
“It is difficult,” said Svonavec, secretary-treasurer of Svonavec Inc., whose company has owned the land since 1961.
“I feel like my family, my business and I have been attacked personally.”
Although memorial organizers have said Svonavec is seeking $10 million for the 273 acres of reclaimed strip mine, including the hallowed ground where the hijacked plane crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, he maintains he has not attached an asking price for the property.
Families of Flight 93, the group representing the 40 innocent passengers and crew members killed when the plane plummeted into a hill near Shanksville, counters that the market value for land in the area is $1,000 to $2,000 per acre – or about $500,000 for the Svonavec property.
“I’ve never asked the families and I’ve never asked the park service for any amount of money,” he said.
Somerset attorney Pat Svonavec, Mike’s brother, said the company has not yet received an appraisal from the National Park Service.
“I would not be surprised,” Pat Svonavec said, “if it would far exceed any of the numbers that have allegedly been offered for the property.”
The controversy gained national attention last week, days after Mike Svonavec erected a cash-donation box near the temporary memorial to help defray the costs of security.
In late February, when federal reimbursements expired, the county said it no longer would have deputies patrol the grounds. Since then, Svonavec has paid about $10,000 a month for a private guard.
National Park Service officials covered the box with a plastic bag on Wednesday, and said they were going to remove it Friday.
“I still don’t understand their basis,” Svonavec said. “I don’t think it’s disrespectful.”
In the past week, Svonavec has been inundated with calls from local and national media – while at the same time trying to run the business.
“I would say he has probably had sleepless nights,” said Pat Svonavec, one of seven brothers.
“He has great concern for the effect it is having on his immediate family and his extended family.”
Patrick White, vice president of Families of Flight 93 and lead negotiator for the land, has called the donation box “inappropriate.”
Ed Root, president of the family group, said Svonavec is holding memorial organizers “hostage” with his demands.
Svonavec said he told White from the beginning that he will negotiate only with the National Park Service, not Families of Flight 93.
“I’m still willing to sell the property to the Park Service,” he said.
“I’m just waiting for them to go through the process.
“What people see in the media is what they believe: That I made demands of the families or Park Service. That just isn’t true,” Svonavec said.
“All we have done is give from our needs.”
Svonavec said all he wants is a fair deal.
He reiterated he wants no money for the land where the plane actually crashed.
“It’s very unfortunate, and obviously very unfair,” he said.
“All we have done is cooperate and keep our property open.”