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BEACH EROSION REPORT

STORM TOOK A BITE

OUT OF SHORELINES

Sonic boom:
Why didnt
Navy issue
a warning?
Officials remain mum
about rattling ruckus
RUSS ZIMMER @RUSSZIMMER

Why didnt the Navy warn us its jets would be making such a ruckus?
No answer was forthcoming Friday, a day after the
ground shook for hours, from southern New Jersey all
the way up to Long Island, a swath of land home to millions of people.
It took the Navy more than four hours to release a
statement conceding that it was sonic booms
caused by supersonic aircraft on flight maneuvers
that prompted what some feared were earthquakes.
The Asbury Park Press asked the Navy for more
details of what happened; the officials have been as
mum as their aircraft were loud.
Two jets, an F-35C and F-18, from Naval Air Station
Patuxent River, Maryland, were responsible for all
the racket, which some local residents blamed for new
cracks in their homes damage insurance officials
said likely was covered by homeowners insurance.
The aircraft are capable of flying about 1,200 mph,
See BOOM, Page 12A

The tremors were more than just a

PETER ACKERMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Long Beach Township police go house to house in the Holgate section, checking on erosion and state of the homes.

surprise to some. Some residents, like

Edward Witek in Barnegat, reported

A DEP survey found 19 towns or beach areas, including many

in Ocean County, suffered major erosion during noreaster

newly-formed cracks in the walls or

ceilings of their homes.

JEAN MIKLE @JEANMIKLE

Areas of northern Ocean Countys barrier island

have been left vulnerable to future storms after a vicious Jan. 23 noreaster gouged chunks of sand from
beaches in Ortley Beach and exposed a protective steel
wall in sections of Mantoloking and Brick, state officials said.
Northern Ocean County is vulnerable, said William Dixon, manager of the state Department of Environmental Protections Department of Coastal Engineering. The department surveyed beaches on Jan. 24
and 25. Most of those municipalities have been trucking in sand to protect those areas.
Of the 66 municipalities and beach areas surveyed,
19 had major beach or dune erosion, 21 had moderate
beach or dune erosion and 26 had minor beach and
dune erosion.
Erosion was particularly pronounced in areas of
Ocean Countys northern barrier island, where a longawaited beach replenishment project to be completed
by the Army Corps of Engineers has been delayed because dozens of oceanfront property owners have still
refused to sign easements granting the corps access to
the beach.
Mantoloking and Brick have closed their beaches to
the public until further notice because there is now a
large vertical drop down to the sand.
In Bay Head, Brick and Mantoloking, the ocean battered away at the sand, exposing a rock revetment in
Bay Head and sections of a steel wall in Brick. In Brick,
there is now a vertical drop of 10 to 15 feet from the
steel wall to the beach, while in Mantoloking the drop is
7 to 8 feet.
One of the primary reason for that steel wall was to
protect those areas in advance of the federal project,

Jon Peditto is sentenced Friday to eight

years in prison for growing 17 marijuana
plants in the Pinelands.
DOUG HOOD/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Pot activists toke

up at sentencing
THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Linda Brick of the Monterey Beach section of Toms River

walks past eroded dunes near 5th Avenue in the northern
end of Normandy Beach on Monday.

19

Of the 66 municipalities and beach areas surveyed,

19 had major beach or dune erosion, 21 had moderate beach or dune erosion and 26 had minor beach
and dune erosion.

Go to APP.com to see a
video of DEP
Commissioner Bob Martin and Lt. Gov.
Kim Guadagno surveying erosion
damage in Ortley Beach.

See EROSION, Page 10A

Why did Top

Tomato close?
Customers were surprised when the supermarkets
Freehold Township location suddenly closed its doors. 4A

Growth slowed substantially

in the fourth quarter, and
the trade gap widened. 1B

5D
6D
4D
3A
3D

OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
WEATHER
YOUR MONEY

8A
11A
1C
10C
4A

VOLUME 137
NUMBER 26
SINCE 1879

TOMS RIVER Activists smoked marijuana out of

a water pipe in front of the Ocean County Courthouse
Friday without repercussions, but they couldnt save a
Mays Landing man from an eight-year prison term for
growing 17 cannabis plants in the Pinelands.
Still, the prison term Jon Peditto received for operating a marijuana production facility is lower than the
10-year minimum term for the crime he was convicted
of in October.
Superior Court Judge James M. Blaney gave 54year-old Jon Peditto a break, sentencing him for a less
serious crime.
The judge said that despite Pedittos rudeness to
him and prosecutors during his trial last year, he
found enough mitigating factors to cut him a break.
The man I saw was a man who admitted smoking
marijuana since he was 15 years old, Blaney said of
Peditto. Some of his cognitive brain functions seem
See SENTENCE, Page 12A

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