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Vol. 7 – No. 5 ♦
The News Leader of the Pines
♦
November 26 - December 2, 2022
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Whether Hornickel Will Be There to Aid Pemberton Transition Mired in Uncertainty
‘I DON’T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL ANYMORE’
Business Administrator’s Status Suddenly in Limbo as Mayor-elect Signals He Could Use His Expertise, Knowledge of Township Finances By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer
middle school pupils have been repeatedly taunting her this school year with perfume and cologne while she is driving students to school, with at least one incident so far causing her to require medical treatment. While the veteran school bus driver pointed out she “loves what I do,” the purported continued disregard for her safety, and the safety of others, led her to publicly declare, “I don’t want to come to work anymore.”
PEMBERTON—For the past three years and four months, Daniel Hornickel has served as business administrator of Pemberton Township, a role that has made him an official spokesman for this municipality of just under 27,000 residents at the entrance to the Joint Base, put him in charge of its police and fire departments, and in effect made him second-in-command to its 16-year Democratic Mayor David A. Patriarca, whom he sat beside at township council meetings. But now that local voters have decided to bring Patriarca’s reign to an end as of Jan. 1, Hornickel’s status appears to have suddenly gone into a kind of limbo, despite the extensive knowledge he has acquired of township business and financial affairs that Mayor-elect Jack Tompkins seems to believe would be essential to the smooth transition that Patriarca has indicated he was willing to help bring about. Inquiries from the Pine Barrens Tribune regarding whether Hornickel was still a township employee in response to a news tip that he had been let go have only served to accentuate that uncertainty, which first began to evolve when a reporter attempted to reach him at the municipal building Nov. 18 and was told by his administrative
See BULLIED/ Page 6
See TRANSITION/ Page 7
Photo By Douglas D. Melegari and graphics from Freepik.com
That’s What a Brave, ‘Bullied’ Middle Schooler, in Pleading for Help, Told the Pemberton BOE in Stunning Moment Before Thanksgiving, All While Asthmatic School Bus Driver Describes ‘No Longer Wanting to Come to Work’ After Being Repeatedly Taunted with Fragrances
By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer
PEMBERTON—The final Pemberton Board of Education meeting of the year, held just before the Thanksgiving holiday commenced, was filled with an array of emotions as the school governing body, already beleaguered from more than a year’s worth of descriptions of an unabated behavioral and mental health crisis affecting the Pemberton School District, in an unprecedented moment, unexpectedly heard from a m iddle
schooler who described “a lot of bullying going on” at the district’s Helen A. Fort Middle School, to the point that the youngster “doesn’t want to come to school anymore because it is getting so bad.” But if that wasn’t enough to convey the point that the Pemberton district is apparently still amid a crisis, as both newly-released Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) and School Violence statistics from the latter half of the 202122 school year indicate, a district school bus driver described on Nov. 17 that
INDEX Business Directory...................................10
Marketplace/Job Board................................. 12
Calendar of Events.....................................8
Worship Guide............................................7
Christmas Countdown............................. C1 Local News.................................................2
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