With the aborted re-opening, a war of words broke out in the press between Tonti and the pair of Paramus Mayor Charles E. Reid and Police Chief Carl Jockish. Reid and Jockish believed that the agreement in May 1966 was a permanent one, with exit 166 being closed for good. Tonti responded that it was only temporary in their agreement. Tonti noted that this was temporary so engineers could test the traffic patterns at the new interchange 165. Reid stated that he had documents proving this agreement was a permanent one while Tonti noted that on May 17, he received the results of the traffic study stating that there would be no issues with the re-opening of the ramp. Despite this, Tonti noted that they were willing to move the barriers to prevent left turns to avoid the blind curves. However, Paramus rejected that decision before the slated opening. Tonti noted that state police troopers would be assigned to ensure the ramp stayed closed in case of any confusion.