Friday’s Clarion County Jail Inspection Board meeting was the last one for jail warden Jeff Hornberger, who has announced his retirement.
Hornberger has 28 years of service with the county, including the last 20 as warden.
“We will miss him,” county commissioner Wayne Brosius said at Friday’s meeting. “He has done a great job for the past 20 years as our warden.”
“It is going to be hard, but after a long time you start to look at the private sector,” said Hornberger. “We have had a lot of good times and some not so good times.”
“In the short time I have been here you have always been responsive and helped me in anything I have needed in relation to the jail,” county Judge Sara Seidle-Patton said Friday. “There were a couple of tough years during COVID. You worked together with everyone to meet all of the challenges.”
Hornberger said “there have been many accomplishments I am proud of but it hard to raise one above the other.”
The jail employed new technologies under Hornberger’s guidance.
“I was here when the jail opened and we did not have a computer in the jail,” he said.
“Everything was done on a word processor. When you can rely on technology it is a great tool. When it breaks down it is the most frustrating thing you can deal with.”
Hornberger said his plans for the future are to “work in the private sector.”
Asked by a staff member if there might be conditions where he might remain as the warden, Hornberger offered “no comment.”
Brosius said a new warden hasn’t been selected.