Mark Lennihan / AP file

Visitors look over the waterfalls at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum on Feb. 25 in New York.

NEW YORK -- Faced with hefty operating costs, the foundation building the 9/11 museum at the World Trade Center has decided to charge an admission fee of $20 to $25 when the site opens next year.

The exact cost of the mandatory fee has not yet been decided.

Entry to the memorial plaza with its twin reflecting pools will still be free.

The decision to charge for the underground museum housing relics of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has been greeted with dismay by some relatives of 9/11 victims.

"People are coming to pay their respects and for different reasons," said Janice Testa of Valley Stream, whose firefighter brother Henry Miller Jr. died at the twin towers. "It shouldn't be a place where you go and see works of art. It should more be like a memorial place like a church that there's no entry fee."

Testa was visiting the memorial Saturday with relatives from Florida.

The memorial plaza opened in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks, but disputes over funding have pushed the museum's opening back to spring 2014.

With the cost of operating the memorial and museum projected to be $60 million a year, the memorial foundation voted at its board meeting last week to charge a mandatory admission fee for the museum.

"This is something that is going to be important and is going to be worth the expenditure," Joseph Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, said Saturday.

Daniels said the museum will be free during certain hours every week and will offer student and senior discounts.

Foundation officials had considered an optional donation but rejected the idea.

"We decided that it's more fiscally prudent to have a straight ticket charge," Daniels said.

Debra Burlingame, a foundation board member whose brother was the pilot of one of the hijacked planes, said the trade center site is expensive to build on and to protect.

"The World Trade Center site remains a target of interest among terrorists, so the security has to be robust and relentless," Burlingame said in a phone interview. "There's a big price tag on that.

"Would we like to be able to say this is free? Absolutely," Burlingame added. But she called it "irresponsible to hope that year after year we have donations that will cover an expense like security."

Some visitors to the memorial were divided about charging admission to the museum.

Retired school psychologist Valerie Cericola of Lavalette, N.J., said the entry fee sounded fair.

"You need to keep it open, you need to keep it running," she said. "It's an expense."

But Jennifer Reyes, a friend of Cericola's daughter who was born on Sept. 11, 2001, said the museum should ask for an optional donation.

"I think a donation like $10 would be good," Jennifer said.

AP radio correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report. 

Related: Images of the World Trade Center site from PhotoBlog

NEW YORK — A special fund set up by Congress to compensate people who got sick after being exposed to toxic World Trade Center dust following Sept. 11 is making its first round of payments, with the initial payouts going to a group of 15 first responders with respiratory problems.

The administrator who oversees the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Sheila Birnbaum, announced Tuesday that the fund was finally poised to process payouts, after a deliberate start in which officials figured out how the program would work and lawyers pieced together documentation for at least 16,000 applications.

The first round of payments, most of which have been offered to firefighters, range from $10,000 to a high of $1.5 million.

Birnbaum declined to identify the recipients by name or say much about their illnesses, citing privacy concerns. She said their health problems range from "serious" to "not so serious," and that the people getting the larger awards tended to be younger and to have suffered more severe economic losses.

The people offered lower amounts include some who have already received other compensation for their illnesses, including shares of a civil settlement for thousands of firefighters, police officers and construction workers who had sued over the lack of protective equipment at ground zero.

None of the people in the initial group had cancer and all are still living, Birnbaum said.

"We think we are off to a good start, and with the help of the lawyers and the claimants, we will be able to come up with a lot more awards in the coming months," she said.

It will be years, though, before any applicants see the bulk of their money, or even know for certain how much they will get.

Officials don't yet know how many people will apply for aid from the $2.78 billion fund, or how ill they will be. That means they can't yet calculate each person's share. So for now, applicants are getting only 10 percent of their award. The remainder won't be paid until after the fund closes to new applicants in 2016.

Some advocates for the sick have worried that the $2.78 billion appropriated by Congress will be far less than the actual losses suffered by the sick — a possibility that Birnbaum acknowledged in drafting the formula she is using to decide how much money claimants will get in the first round.

Planning for a worst-case scenario, fund officials estimated that as many as 26,475 people would be eligible for more than $8.5 billion in compensation.

If that happens, the firefighter awarded $1.5 million this week would, in the end, actually get a prorated share of only around $488,000.

"I think without question, there is not going to be enough," said Noah Kushlefsky, a lawyer who, along with partners, is representing about 4,700 claimants. He said that he believed Congress would ultimately be asked to put more money into the fund. "There is no doubt, based on the severity of some of the injuries."

As for the slow pace of awards so far, Kushlefsky said Birnbaum and her staff are not to blame.

He said the process of assembling the evidence showing that his clients were actually at ground zero, or were exposed to toxins, has been challenging and time-consuming. But he said the process is hitting a stage when applications should be moving much more quickly.

"I think that things are going to start taking off in the very near future," he said, noting that some of his clients have grumbled about the slowness of the process. "All these guys have waited 11 years now, and none of them are warm and fuzzy about it."

Related: 

US adds cancer to list of illnesses linked to 9/11 terror attacks 

US to cover cancer care for 9/11 responders

Plan: Responders could cover 50 cancers

The Missouri Department of Transportation says it had no choice but to approve an application by a 9/11 “truther” group to “adopt” a stretch of state highway for litter pickup.

The agency recently OK’d the application from the St. Louis 9/11 Questions Meetup Group under the Adopt-A-Highway program. The approval means the group will have two signs bearing their names erected next month on each end of a half-mile stretch of Olive Boulevard east of Lindbergh Road in the St. Louis area.

In return, the group agrees to pick up litter along the stretch at least four times a year for the next three years.

Some members of the St. Louis 9/11 Questions Meetup Group suggest that the U.S. government may have been involved in the 9/11  terrorist attacks. Here's how the group describes itself on its website:

“We are residents of the Greater St. Louis Area (and other areas) concerned about the many disturbing aspects of the 9/11 attacks and interested in finding out more about those events. We have many disagreements, but we agree that 9/11 is worth inquiring into.”

Holly Dentner, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman, said the state can’t turn away a group’s Adopt-A-Highway application based on the group’s viewpoints. As long as the applicant fulfills the program’s obligations, which include collecting litter at least four times a year and submitting an activity report to the state, it can participate, she said.

“We can’t deny an adopter group a section of highway to pick up trash just based on their belief or opinions,” she told NBC News. “Should they not fulfill the obligations, we can cancel and remove the signs.”

A federal appeals court ruling in 2000 limited Missouri’s ability to pick and choose highway “adopters.” The 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge’s ruling that Missouri could not reject the Ku Klux Klan’s application to adopt a stretch of Interstate 55 south of St. Louis. The Missouri Legislature later voted to name the stretch of highway in question the “Rosa Parks Highway,” in honor of the black civil rights activist from Alabama. The KKK was eventually dropped from the Adopt-A-Highway program for failing to pick up litter.

Other states have had Adopt-A-Highway controversies as well. In Georgia, a KKK chapter sued in September after the state rejected the white supremacist group’s application. In 2005, the American Nazi Party adopted a stretch of rural highway outside Salem, Ore., but their signs were quickly vandalized and later removed.

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Dentner said the St. Louis 9/11 Questions group is among more than 4,000 adopter groups who pick up a total of about 20,000 bags of trash along 6,463 miles of roads across the state a year.

The program saves the state at least $1 million a year in trash collection costs, said Tom Blair,  assistant district engineer for state Transportation Department in St. Louis. “Without the Adopt-A-Highway program, all roadsides in Missouri would be much dirtier,” he said.

Donald Stahl, organizer of the St. Louis 9/11 Questions Meetup Group, believes the World Trade Center towers did not collapse strictly as a result of being struck by airplanes hijacked by terrorists. He says they may have been brought down by a controlled demolition.

As for why his group wants to adopt a highway: “Like all the other groups that do it, we like the free publicity,” he told KSDK. 

Stahl did not respond to an email request from NBC News for comment.

The group’s philosophy doesn’t sit well with Warren Nelson, of the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. He and his wife lost their son, David Nelson, in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Certainly we would not be in agreement with an organization that believes that our U.S. government had anything to do at all with 9/11,” he said. “No way.”

As to highway signs bearing the group’s name, Nelson said:  “I would not want to drive down and see a sign like that.”

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Janet Hamlin / AFP - Getty Images

This courtroom sketch shows alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as he holds up a piece of paper during a court recess at his hearing on Monday at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Updated at 5:20 p.m. ET: The self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which resulted in the deaths of 2,976 people, appeared before a military judge at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Monday after months of delays due to scheduling conflicts, religious observances, an Internet outage and a tropical storm.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shocked some observers by appearing with a long, full beard that had been dyed bright reddish-orange. He appeared before Judge Army Col. James Pohl for the start of a week of pretrial hearings, along with co-defendants Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, a Pakistani; Mustafa Al Hawsawi, a Saudi; and Walid Bin Attash and Ramzi Binalshibh, two men from Yemen.

Unlike their last appearance in court in May, which was disrupted several times by the defendants, the five men sat quietly at the defense table, under the watchful eyes of military guards and several family members of the 9/11 victims, The Associated Press reported. All seemed to be cooperating with their attorneys. Mohammed read legal papers. Two others responded politely to the judge when they were asked questions, according to the AP.

All the defendants wore white robes and turbans, and spoke openly with one another throughout the course of the day.

The men, being prosecuted in a special military tribunal for war-time offenses, are charged with conspiring with al-Qaida, attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder in violation of the laws of war, destruction of property, hijacking and terrorism. All five could face the death penalty if convicted.

Associated Press

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, is seen shortly after his capture in Pakistan in this photo taken on March 1, 2003.

The families of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks were invited to military installations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York City to watch the pretrial hearings on closed-circuit television, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Getting the terror suspects to this point has been a years-long process mired in political and legal arguments over the defendants' rights, the use of evidence that may have been derived through torture, and the proper venue for the proceedings. The actual trial is expected to be at least a year away.

The pretrial hearings this week will cover a series of motions filed by the various defense teams, dealing primarily with secrecy issues and the detainees' rights.

The most controversial issue, which was not taken up by the end of the first day, is a challenge to the government's gag order on any information gained during interrogation of the detainees. The ACLU and more than one dozen news organizations filed a motion to oppose to government's gag order. The government maintains the order is necessary to protect classified intelligence-gathering techniques.

Defendants may skip hearings
On Monday, prosecutors and lawyers spent hours arguing the most preliminary of issues, including whether the defendants have to be in court at all, with one attorney saying the hearings may dredge up bad memories of their harsh treatment in CIA detention.

Defense attorney Capt. Michael Schwartz argued that the detainees should not be forced to come to court because the process of forcibly removing them from their cells is traumatic and reminiscent of harsh interrogation techniques.

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Schwartz said that if the court was considering forced cell extraction it had to talk about torture.

"No we don't," the judge said quickly.

"I think we do," Schwartz said.

"I'm telling you I don't think that's relevant in this issue. That's the end of that, move on to something else," Pohl retorted.

But Schwartz persisted, saying he needs to address the issue of torture.

"No you don't," the judge said more forcefully this time, adding that the defense does not have the opportunity to make an argument that he sees as irrelevant.

After a prolonged and heated back-and-forth, the detainees were granted the right to waive their attendence at the hearings at least until jurors are assembled for the actual trial, but they must sign a waiver each day they choose not to attend.

Toward the end of the day, the judge asked each of the five detainees a series of questions to ensure they understand their new rights to waive attendance at their sessions.

Binalshibh answered each of his questions in imperfect English, veering into a perplexing discussion about escaping from Guantanamo and alleging unfair treatment from his guards.

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When asked whether he understands that the trial could ultimately continue even if he is not present, Binalshibh looked perplexed, saying, "that is a very wide word, can you be concrete?"

"I'm not implying that I think you are going to escape," the judge said, adding that if that were to happen, the trial could continue without him being there.

"Escaping from custody?" Binalshibh asked.

"I'm not saying you're going to," the judge said, asking again whether he understands that the trial could continue without him. Binalshibh seemed to smile as he said, "Yes I do."

Guantamo guards make things 'difficult'
He raised concerns about the fact that guards would be sent to bring him to the hearings, though, saying, "dealing with the guard is very difficult. They didn't report everything so correctly. Problems with guards can misreporting all things."

"Some guard when you have problem with them they can make it very difficult for us," he said.

When the judge recommended reporting any problems to his attorney, Binalshibh said, "Where can I call him? There is no time to contact him. Very difficult communication for us."

Mohammed answered his questions through his interpreter. He looked down and answered simply "yes" to every question, until at the end when asked whether he understands he doesn't have to attend the sessions.

"Yes, but I don't think there is any justice in this court," he said through his interpreter.

The court was in session for about five total hours, with several breaks throughout the day. It then adjourned until 9 a.m. ET. Tuesday.

Pohl was also expected to hear requests from news organizations on limiting closed courtrooms for secret sessions and be asked to decide whether the U.S. Constitution governs tribunals held at the U.S. base in Cuba.

The testy exchanges occurred during a hearing that was otherwise calm and orderly, in stark contrast to the chaotic 13-hour arraignment hearing in May, when defendants made defiant outbursts and refused to answer the judge's questions or listen through earphones to an Arabic-English translation of the proceedings. In those proceedings, one of the men was briefly restrained and two of them stood up to pray at one point.

Subsequent hearings had been pushed back for various reasons.

A hearing in July was postponed to allow the defendants to observe the holy month of Ramadan. Hearings in August were delayed when an Internet outage left the lawyers unable to access their electronic legal documents. That hearing was later canceled altogether as Tropical Storm Isaac approached. The storm caused no damage to the base.

A hearing scheduled for late September was also delayed because the work space for the defense lawyers was shut down due to a rat infestation and mold, which lawyers claimed were making them sick, Reuters reported.

Pohl ruled on Oct. 5 there would be no further postponements to the hearings.

An earlier attempt to try the five men at Guantanamo ended when the Obama administration tried to move the trials to New York City, where two of the hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center.

That was abandoned under pressure from Congress and from New Yorkers, and the charges were re-filed in Guantanamo.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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