ASBURY PARK PRESS

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MONDAY 08.08.16

Blue team
takes win
Press Hockey
Classic benefit
raises over $1,750.
SPORTS, 1D

Readers aid
deaf couples
quest to adopt
JERRY CARINO
CARINOS CORNER

KEEPING SHORE
SWIMMERS SAFE

POINT PLEASANT BEACH - Ramonas enthusiasm is contagious. The

five-year-olds eyes sparkle with curiosity as she inspects a visitors video
camera. A huge smile breaks out when
she notices her image in the viewfinder.
She steals everyones attention
when she walks into a room, says her
mom, Catrina Ballou-Nowrey.
Catrina and Billy Nowrey are typical proud parents. Their journey to parenthood, however, was anything but ordinary. Both of them are deaf. After they
struggled to have children on their own, they set
about adopting a deaf child from China Ramona.
The process took a year, and we had to figure out
how to raise the money, Billy says. They had put in
$10,000 of their own and needed $20,000 more.
Communicating through an interpreter, Catrinas
cousin Petey Cucci, the Lacey couple explained how it
happened a story that illustrates just how generous
people can be.
See CARINO, Page 4A

So high in the sky you would never know they were there, states
aerial surveillance flights have hunted down pollutants since May

JAMES M. O'NEILL @JAMESMONEILL1

Virginia Loftin sat in the front passenger seat of a small Cessna one recent
morning and peered at the glittering water of Barnegat Bay about 500 feet
below. Loftin, a scientist, was looking for anything unusual, like a large

THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Catrina Ballou-Nowrey with her newly adopted daughter,

Ramona, in Point Pleasant Beach Wednesday.

area of discoloration on the water or an oil sheen anything that might

affect the coastal water quality. The flight involved a route up Barnegat
Bay, across Raritan Bay, around the tip of Sandy Hook, and down along the
Atlantic Ocean beaches to Egg Harbor Inlet. It was part of the state Department of Environmental Protections annual summer aerial surveillance of the Jersey Shore. Since the 1980s, the flights have been conducted
six days a week from mid-May to mid-September. See AERIAL, Page 8A

$43B

The DEP conducts the aerial surveys not only to protect the health of
swimmers but also to maintain clean beaches, since the Jersey Shore
is such a big part of the states $43 billion tourism industry.

An aerial view of the Manasquan Inlet from off the Jersey Shore. JAMES M. ONEILL/STAFF PHOTO

Port Authority reform hits a snag

PAUL BERGER @PDBERGER

Around the Port Authority, it is simply known as

Rule 3.
It is one of the reasons that legislative reform of
the bi-state agency which continues to reel from
scandals such as the George Washington Bridge lane
closings and the chairmans flight has stalled.
This little-talked-about provision essentially extends Fifth Amendment protections, the right
against self-incrimination, to internal disciplinary investigations of employees and Port Authority Police.
Lawmakers have been pushing for reform for five
years, only to see their efforts vetoed by Gov. Chris
Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the leaders of the agency who have often tapped its ample
budget to fund projects large and small in each state.

New federal regulations for

electronic cigarettes go into
effect today. STORY, 1B

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Most of the reforms proposed over the years

New Jersey and New York must pass identical legislation for it to affect the Port Authority place the
agency under greater legislative oversight. The latest New York effort, however, tried to remove Rule 3.
But after lobbying from the Port Authority Police
Benevolent Association, New Jersey Democrats are
trying to keep Rule 3 in place, effectively shielding
officers from cooperating with investigations by the
agencys inspector general.
It may be good for the police, but it wouldnt be
good for us, said Port Authority Inspector General
Mike Nestor.
The Port Authority PBA, with 1,300 members, is
the largest police union at the agency. The PBA conSee REFORM, Page 8A

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VOLUME 137
NUMBER 189
SINCE 1879

Councilmans suit
has TR on hook
for nearly $5,000
JEAN MIKLE @JEANMIKLE

TOMS RIVER - A councilmans lawsuit against the

townships Board of Adjustment has cost Toms River
taxpayers nearly $5,000 so far, according to legal bills
obtained by The Asbury Park Press.
Councilman Jeff Carr and eight of his neighbors
filed suit last fall against the zoning board and the Presbyterian Church of Toms River, challenging a zoning
board decision that allowed the church to lease 127
parking spaces to a local auto dealer.
The suit claimed the zoning board had acted arbitrarily and capriciously in allowing the church to lease
the parking spaces to Lester Glenn Auto Group.
State Superior Court Judge Marlene Lynch Ford
ruled against Carr and his neighbors in late May, finding that the boards decision to allow the lease was supported by sufficient factual evidence, and was both
substantively and procedurally legitimate.
See SUIT, Page 7A