The 9/11 Museum and Memorial will have a new motto when it opens in April 2014: Never Forget To Pay Admission. Museum officials announced on Friday that visitors will have to pay a mandatory $20-25 admission fee to enter the museum (the memorial will remain free). “We’re still in the process of considering how much, but it will be in the range of $20 to $25,” Anthony Guido, a spokesman for the museum said. “It will be a set fee.” As you can imagine, 9/11 relatives are decidedly split about the decision.

“It’s ridiculous,” retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches told the News. Riches lost his firefighter son Jimmy on 9/11. “We asked for a memorial and they’ve turned this into a P.T. Barnum production. These people are trying to make money off the worst day in American history.” Debra Burlingame, a 9/11 relative who took part in planning the museum, said “the idea of charging admission is not something we ever wanted to do,” but added “I don’t think people realize the enormous costs of building something like this, in a location like this."

And there's no doubt that it is costing an enormous amount. The 9/11 Foundation that runs the site has gotten more than $425 million from state and federal levels, and more than $450 million from private donations. The museum is expected to cost about $700 million altogether, and the operational costs are estimated at $60 million a year. “As a nonprofit organization that relies on the support of the public, not city, state or federal funding for our operations, we are charging an admission fee in line with other comparable institutions,” said spokesman Michael Frazier. However, there will be exceptions for relatives: "In our case, 9/11 family members won’t pay. And we will have time dedicated for the public to enter for free.”

However, this still doesn't seem right to some. Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son also died on 9/11, wrote an op-ed today claiming that the museum is making families "pay to grieve."

None of the 9/11 family members that I have worked with ever wanted a billion-dollar money pit; all we hoped for was a simple, uplifting, honorable and patriotic memorial for all who were lost that terrible September day. Instead, we have a “money is no object” monstrosity inflicted upon us — a design we did not choose, and which we bear no responsibility for — that was incredibly expensive to build and even more logic-defying to maintain.

The memorial is already charging a $2 service fee for people who make reservations for their visit online or by phone. It's worth noting there have been several instances of tourists and kids trashing the memorial, or treating it like a Disney tour.