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609-801-2392 Vol. 8 – No. 33
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The News Leader of the Pines
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August 3, 2024 - August 9, 2024
BENDING OVER BACKWARDS
New Councilman Appointed to Fill Vacancy in Pemboro Calls for Policy Changes to Address Rentals, Develop Higher Enforcement Standards Ben Bernacki, Who Comes to Council from Planning/Zoning Board After Resignation of Nick Conner, Asserts Opinion Following Complaints About Rental Home and Roosters Crowing By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer
Photo Provided
Dr. James Holton, an internist in Medford Township, when he worked in India.
Medford Township Internist, Who Has Become a Community Staple in Providing Primary Care with Personalized Touch, Announces His Retirement After 36 Years, But Educates His Patients and the Community at Large for a Final Time on How Physician–Patient Relationships Have ‘Become Fractured’ Due to Industry Changes By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer
MEDFORD—Dr. James Holton, an internist in Medford Township, has made it his mission of “bending over backwards” for his patients during the past 36 years. For that reason, as well as serving as one of the physicians for the Lenape Regional High School District (LRHSD), he has become a community staple and a household name in the Medford area. “I have been seeing Dr. Holton for over 30 years now and just want to say he is very caring, thorough and I couldn't ask for a better doctor!” wrote one of his patients on Vitals, a website that allows patients to leave reviews about their doctors. But now Holton, who has helped lead a “very solid primary care practice in the community” alongside Drs. John Waldron and Joseph Hickey, (which, since 1994 has been located at 69 N. Main Street in Medford Village, in a building formerly the Medford Train Station), is announcing
his retirement. Over the past couple of weeks, Holton has informed his patients of his pending retirement, and in seeing his patients for the last time, he asserted, “I am appreciative of how really affected they are by my retirement.” “I am really thankful I get to say goodbye, wish them well and so forth,” the retiring physician added, noting that helping people to live long and healthy lives is really the most important thing for a primary care physician. “It is a little bit emotional for me, and a bittersweet experience.” But in saying goodbye, Holton wants to do what he has always done best – educate, and in this case, he wants to inform both his patients and the community at large of how “physician and patient relationships have become fractured” due to the “profound effects” of recent changes in the healthcare industry, which has led to his decision to retire. Holton, who went to Rutgers Medical
School, graduated with a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 1985. He then performed his residency at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. It was in 1988 that he joined Waldron’s primary care-internal medicine practice in Medford, where, according to Holton, they “saw and treated adults with chronic medical conditions and provided acute care.” Hickey, a fellow resident doctor at Hahnemann, joined Holton and Waldron in 1992 and the “three of us worked together in the same practice for 30 plus years.” “In 1994, we moved to 69 N. Main Street where we purchased the train station, and we called our practice Medford Station Internal Medicine,” Holton recounted. “The three of us worked together all the time, basically doing the same thing, day in and day out.” Providing physician services to the LRHSD has also been “part of our job since 1991,” Holton noted, where they have See INTERNIST/ Page 8
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PEMBERTON BOROUGH —Nick Conner, a Republican councilman in Pemberton Borough of the last couple years, has resigned, with Ben Bernacki, who has been serving as the vice president of the local Planning and Zoning Board, chosen to take his place. Conner, whose term was set to expire at the end of December, stepped down from his council post during a June 17 Pemberton Borough Council meeting, and while he did not publicly give a reason for his decision, an official later told this newspaper it is due to a change in residency. “It has been an honor and privilege to serve the town I grew up in,” Conner said. “I greatly appreciate the townspeople’s confidence in me these last two-plus years in serving as a councilman. I wish nothing but continued success and great things for Pemberton Borough. I will miss the borough, but know that it will still be governed by awesome individuals who love the community with their whole hearts.” GOP Mayor Bonnie Haines, in thanking Conner for his service, declared it was a “pleasure for me” to serve alongside him. Bernacki was among three people recommended by the local GOP to fill the vacancy, the others being former councilmen Tim Quinlan and Robert Brock. Bernacki was sworn in to council on the same evening that Conner stepped down. Bernacki’s first full meeting was on July 15. It was then that the council heard a complaint from a resident of Mary Street, including that a purportedly broken-down car was being allowed to just sit on the street after some three months passed, with a couch “just dropped out the day before” the third borough Food Truck Fridays event, which was held in the same vicinity. She also described a “rental apartment” next to her residence also reportedly being unkept, See VACANCY/ Page 6
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