Can growth at Flight 93 crash site remain respectful?

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Searching for an economic boost and home to perhaps the most compelling story of Sept. 11, rural Somerset County is trying to pull off a balancing act: remembering the victims of United Airlines Flight 93 in a way that encourages development and job growth without devolving into tackiness and disrespect.

Three years before the anticipated opening of a memorial that the National Park Service expects will bring in 250,000 visitors a year, officials say they are working to make this area of western Pennsylvania more hospitable to tourists.

By necessity, they say, this would bring more inns, restaurants and other new businesses and jobs to a region where the traditional industries — steel, coal-mining, manufacturing and farming — have declined over the decades.

The buildup has already begun, accommodating the 1 million people the Park Service estimates have visited a temporary Flight 93 memorial since it opened about six months after the plane plummeted into a reclaimed minefield in Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001. Investigators believe terrorists crashed the plane as passengers rushed the cockpit.

The work is creating opportunities in a county of just under 80,000 with a median family income $15,000 below the national average. At the same time, officials say they are determined to find ways to prevent development that could be seen as exploiting the events of Sept. 11, including tacky gift shops on the narrow roads leading to the memorial.

"We really don't market, we allow it to do its own thing," said Ron Aldom, executive director of the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce. He said no one wants to do anything to offend the families of the 40 passengers and crew who perished.

The $58 million memorial to the victims is scheduled to open in Shanksville, a town of about 250 about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

In the past three years, at least a dozen small inns and bed-and-breakfasts have opened in a 15-mile radius of the crash site, Aldom said. At least a dozen restaurants have also opened.

"It's sparked investment, no doubt," Aldom said.

Pamela Tokar-Ickes, chairwoman of the Somerset County Commissioners, said the county is working with municipalities surrounding the crash site to prevent inappropriate development. She said they are trying to do so without passing ordinances.