At 9/11 commemoration, people involved in rebuilding will join family members in reading names

Rebuilding officials to read WTC victims’ names

NEW YORK — Relatives of those killed at the World Trade Center will share the podium with people involved in rebuilding the trade center site at this year’s ceremony marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The annual commemoration is centered around the one-by-one reading of the names of the dead. At first only relatives read the names, but categories of people such as volunteers and emergency service workers were invited to participate in recent years.

A letter from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson that went out to victims’ families Monday said that “to recognize all those who are working so hard to rebuild the site, for this year’s reading of the names, family members will be paired with representatives involved in its redevelopment including architects and engineers, construction workers and administrators.”

The news did not sit well with some family members.

“The relatives are the ones who should be there to memorialize their lost loved ones. Period,” said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed at the trade center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Retired fire Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who also lost a firefighter son on Sept. 11, agreed.

“I think it should be strictly family members,” he said. “It means a lot to get up there in front of the whole world and tell your son how much you miss him.”

But Anthony Gardner, whose brother died at the trade center, said it’s appropriate for family members to be joined by those who are building the Sept. 11 memorial and museum that will take up half of the 16-acre trade center site.

“It validates the importance of the collaboration,” he said.

The redevelopment of the lower Manhattan site has been plagued by delays and fraught with politics. Construction is under way on two of five planned ground zero office buildings, the memorial and a transit hub, but other planned skyscrapers have been stalled by financing disputes.

Some victims’ family members are critical of the redevelopment process.

Regenhard said she believes “9/11 is for the dead.”

“It’s not for business and cash registers and development,” she said.

The Sept. 11 ceremony will take place at a park just southeast of the trade center site.