The Somerset County chapel devoted to the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 will continue to operate despite the dismantling of the nonprofit corporation created to oversee it, says the chapel's founder, the Rev. Alphonse Mascherino. Flight 93 crashed into a field following a hijacking near Cleveland during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. According to the national 9/11 commission, passengers disrupted the plans of the terrorists to crash into either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives, were saved, the commission's preliminary findings suggest. After a 4-3 vote by the corporation's board of directors, the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel also lost its tax-exempt status. Mascherino said, however, the tiny church located a few miles from the 9/11 crash site will remain open. It will participate in a national bell ringing ceremony July 4. "It will continue exactly the same as before," said Mascherino, who served as corporate president. "I didn't need (corporation) money." The dispute that sealed the corporation's fate, Mascherino said, revolved around his insistence that he receive a guarantee about the chapel's future. "I was looking for some kind of assurance," he said. "I was even willing to give up my position on the board." Mascherino said he was told the chapel's future would pass from his hands to the corporation's once he signed off on the building's mortgage. Mascherino bought the abandoned country church for $18,000 soon after the terrorist attacks. He said he still owes $10,000. Board member Ernest Stull, the mayor of Shanksville, expressed disappointment over the turn of events, but said he would continue to help Mascherino out as a chapel volunteer. "(Mascherino) can't be there all the time," Stull said. "He can't be spread out even more than he is." Stull refused to comment on the dispute among the board members. "I can't reveal it," he said. "I won't talk about it." Stull did say that he didn't "quite understand" all aspects of the disagreement that ended in the dissolution of the corporation. "The visitors are still very happy with the chapel," Stull said. Stull cast the deciding vote in the dispute. According to Mascherino, the mayor "doesn't have a lot of time for bull." "He was half apologetic," Mascherino said. "He felt he may have been hurting me." In some ways, Mascherino indicated he was pleased to be out from under the board, which included the sister of Flight 93 passenger Colleen Fraser, of Elizabeth, N.J. "Everything I did was under scrutiny. Some (directors) were criticizing the way the chapel was decorated," Mascherino said. Mascherino said he pays a $185-a-month mortgage bill. Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11, 2001. Lives also were lost at the Pentagon, in suburban Washington, D.C., and at the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. Visitors continue to flock to Somerset County to see where Flight 93 plunged to earth. The chapel is open Friday through Monday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment.

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