Phillipsburg, New Jersey

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 3.311 square miles (8.575 km²), including 3.193 square miles (8.270 km²) of land and 0.118 square miles (0.305 km²) of water (3.56%).

Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the town include Andover Furnace, Delaware Park, Lopatcong Heights, Shirmers and Warren Heights.

Pohatcong Mountain is a ridge, approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) long, in the Appalachian Mountains that extends from Phillipsburg northeast approximately to Washington.

Demographics

The Town's economic data (as is all of Warren County) is calculated by the US Census Bureau as part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Census 2010

The 2010 United States Census counted 14,950 people, 5,925 households, and 3,786 families residing in the town. The population density was 4,682.1 per square mile (1,807.8/km²). The town contained 6,607 housing units at an average density of 2,069.2 per square mile (798.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 83.44% (12,475) White, 7.49% (1,120) Black or African American, 0.17% (26) Native American, 1.53% (228) Asian, 0.05% (8) Pacific Islander, 3.92% (586) from other races, and 3.39% (507) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 11.82% (1,767) of the population.

Out of a total of 5,925 households, 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.0% were married couples living together, 19.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.1% were non-families. 29.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the town, 25.8% of the population were under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.1 years. For every 100 females the census counted 92.7 males, but for 100 females at least 18 years old, it was 87.0 males.

The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $42,825 (with a margin of error of +/- $3,386) and the median family income was $51,334 (+/- $3,243). Males had a median income of $44,311 (+/- $2,090) versus $37,673 (+/- $6,847) for females. The per capita income for the borough was $21,291 (+/- $1,061). About 16.5% of families and 18.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.1% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.

Census 2000

As of the 2000 United States Census there were 15,166 people, 6,044 households, and 3,946 families residing in the town. The population density was 4,703.6 people per square mile (1,818.5/km²). There were 6,651 housing units at an average density of 2,062.8 per square mile (797.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 91.84% White, 3.47% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.83% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 2.02% from other races, and 1.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.38% of the population.

There were 6,044 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.4% were married couples living together, 16.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.7% were non-families. 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.08.

In the town, the population was spread out with 26.6% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 91.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $37,368, and the median income for a family was $46,925. Males had a median income of $37,446 versus $25,228 for females. The per capita income for the town was $18,452. About 9.9% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.6% of those under age 18 and 11.1% of those age 65 or over.

Industrial history

Phillipsburg had historically benefited from being a major transportation hub, situated at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers. Phillipsburg served as the western terminus of the Morris Canal for approximately 100 years from the 1820s to 1920s, which connected the city by water to the industrial and consumer centers of the New York City area, with connections westward via the Lehigh Canal and Delaware Canal across the Delaware. Long gone is the era of canal shipping and many of the important freight railways that served the area have gone bankrupt or bypass the city on long distance routes.

Phillipsburg was served by five major railroads:
1. Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ)
2. Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad (L&HR)
3. Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR)
4. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Phillipsburg Branch (DL&W)
5. Pennsylvania Railroad Belvidere Division (PRR).

Economic revival

Most of the manufacturing jobs have left Warren County's largest city. In 1994, the New Jersey Legislature designated Phillipsburg as an Urban Enterprise Zone community. This zoning offers tax incentives and other benefits to Phillipsburg-based businesses, as well as a 3½% sales tax rate at eligible merchants, reduced from the 7% rate charged statewide.

In recent years, some businesses have begun to move into the center of the city. Rising real estate prices indicate that these legislative stimulants have been somewhat effective. Phillipsburg has been selected as a site for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Heritage Center (jointly with Netcong), a museum designed to help preserve and showcase the state's transportation history.

Railway

A tourist railroad known as the Belvidere & Delaware River Railroad operates on the former Belvidere-Delaware Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad Branch serving excursions from Lehigh Junction Station south to Carpentersville. Norfolk Southern serves the industrial manufacturing purposes in Phillipsburg using former LVRR tracks and the L&HR bridge to connect with the Bel-Del PRR tracks.

Since 2007, NJ Transit has been conducting a study to determine if re-establishing a commuter rail extension of the Raritan Valley Line to Phillipsburg is economically feasible.

Phillipsburg also is home to the Phillipsburg Railroad Historians museum. They display railroad memorabilia inside the museum, an "N" scale diorama, two Lehigh & Hudson River cabooses (one of which is currently being restored) and a Jersey Central caboose. There is a L&HR snow flanger, Tidewater tank car, a CNJ box car owned by the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society, a 1922 Chestnut Ridge Mack railbus owned by the Lehigh Valley NRHS, a Public Service trolley owned by the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society, a 44-ton GE locomotive and a 25-ton GE locomotive. They operate a miniature railroad, the Centerville & Southwestern, that formerly ran in Roseland, New Jersey.

Local government

Phillipsburg is governed under the Mayor-Council system of municipal government within the Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, by a mayor and a five-member Town Council. Councilmembers are elected at-large in partisan elections to four-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with either three seats or two seats and the mayoral seat up for election in odd-numbered years.

As of 2016, the Mayor of Phillipsburg is Democrat Stephen R. Ellis Jr., whose term of office ends December 31, 2019. Town Council members are Council President Todd M. Tersigni (R, 2017), Council Vice President Bernie Fey Jr. (R, 2017), Joshua Davis (D, 2019), Mark Lutz (D, 2019) and Randy S. Piazza Sr. (R, 2017).

Federal, state and county representation

Phillipsburg is located in the 7th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 23rd state legislative district. Prior to the 2010 Census, Phillipsburg had been part of the 5th Congressional District, a change made by the New Jersey Redistricting Commission that took effect in January 2013, based on the results of the November 2012 general elections.

New Jersey's Seventh Congressional District is represented by Leonard Lance (R, Clinton Township). New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Cory Booker (D, Newark, term ends 2021) and Bob Menendez (D, Paramus, 2019).

For the 2016–2017 session (Senate, General Assembly), the 23rd Legislative District of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Michael J. Doherty (R, Washington Township, Warren County) and in the General Assembly by John DiMaio (R, Hackettstown) and Erik Peterson (R, Franklin Township, Hunterdon County). The Governor of New Jersey is Chris Christie (R, Mendham Township). The Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey is Kim Guadagno (R, Monmouth Beach).

Warren County is governed by a Board of Chosen Freeholders whose three members are chosen at-large on a staggered basis in partisan elections with one seat coming up for election each year as part of the November general election. At an annual reorganization meeting held in the beginning of January, the board selects one of its members to serve as Freeholder Director and other as Deputy Director. As of 2014, Warren County's Freeholders are Freeholder Director Edward J. Smith (R, Asbury / Franklin Township, 2015), Freeholder Deputy Director Richard D. Gardner (R, Asbury / Franklin Township, 2014) and Freeholder Jason Sarnoski (R, Lopatcong Township, 2016). Constitutional officers elected on a countywide basis are County Clerk Patricia J. Kolb (Blairstown Township), Sheriff David Gallant (Blairstown Township) and Surrogate Kevin O'Neill (Hackettstown). The County Administrator, Steve Marvin, is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operation of the county and its departments.

Politics

As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 7,681 registered voters in Phillipsburg, of which 2,496 (32.5% vs. 21.5% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 1,510 (19.7% vs. 35.3%) were registered as Republicans and 3,665 (47.7% vs. 43.1%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 10 voters registered to other parties. Among the town's 2010 Census population, 51.4% (vs. 62.3% in Warren County) were registered to vote, including 69.2% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 81.5% countywide).

In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 2,487 votes (56.6% vs. 40.8% countywide), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 1,751 votes (39.8% vs. 56.0%) and other candidates with 88 votes (2.0% vs. 1.7%), among the 4,394 ballots cast by the town's 7,730 registered voters, for a turnout of 56.8% (vs. 66.7% in Warren County). In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 2,673 votes (54.8% vs. 41.4% countywide), ahead of Republican John McCain with 1,983 votes (40.6% vs. 55.2%) and other candidates with 116 votes (2.4% vs. 1.6%), among the 4,879 ballots cast by the town's 7,636 registered voters, for a turnout of 63.9% (vs. 73.4% in Warren County). In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 2,412 votes (49.8% vs. 37.2% countywide), ahead of Republican George W. Bush with 2,324 votes (48.0% vs. 61.0%) and other candidates with 66 votes (1.4% vs. 1.3%), among the 4,842 ballots cast by the town's 7,176 registered voters, for a turnout of 67.5% (vs. 76.3% in the whole county).

In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 63.8% of the vote (1,667 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 33.6% (879 votes), and other candidates with 2.6% (68 votes), among the 2,694 ballots cast by the town's 7,909 registered voters (80 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 34.1%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 1,321 votes (44.1% vs. 61.3% countywide), ahead of Democrat Jon Corzine with 1,159 votes (38.7% vs. 25.7%), Independent Chris Daggett with 365 votes (12.2% vs. 9.8%) and other candidates with 77 votes (2.6% vs. 1.5%), among the 2,994 ballots cast by the town's 7,437 registered voters, yielding a 40.3% turnout (vs. 49.6% in the county).

Education

The Phillipsburg School District serves public school students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, including students from five sending communities who attend the district's high school. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide, which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.

As of the 2012-13 school year, the district's seven schools had an enrollment of 3,667 students and 329.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.13:1. Schools in the district (with 2012-13 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Early Childhood Learning Center (Grades PreK-K, 555 students), Barber School (1&2, 204), Freeman School (1&2, 214), Andover-Morris School (3-5, 245), Green Street School (3-5, 334), Phillipsburg Middle School (6-8, 577), Phillipsburg High School (9-12, 1,588), along with Phillipsburg Alternative Secondary High School, which serves at-risk students in a more relaxed environment with small class sizes and individualized instruction that is designed to help students succeed (6-12).

The district's high school serves students from the Town of Phillipsburg and from five sending communities at the secondary level: Alpha, Bloomsbury (in Hunterdon County), Greenwich Township, Lopatcong Township and Pohatcong Township, as part of sending/receiving relationships with the respective school districts.

The Phillipsburg High School Stateliners have an athletic rivalry with neighboring Easton, Pennsylvania's Easton Area High School, which celebrated its 100th anniversary game on Thanksgiving Day 2006. In 2009, the 1993 teams from the Easton P-Burg Game met again for the Gatorade REPLAY Game to resolve the game, which ended in a 7-7 tie, with more than 13,000 fans watching as Phillipsburg won by a score of 27-12.

Students from the town and from all of Warren County are eligible to attend Ridge and Valley Charter School in Frelinghuysen Township (for grades K-8) or Warren County Technical School in Washington borough (for 9-12), with special education services provided by local districts supplemented throughout the county by the Warren County Special Services School District in Oxford Township (for PreK-12).

Private schools include Saints Philip & James School, which was established in 1875 and serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, operating under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen.

History

Situated at the confluence of the Delaware River and the Lehigh River, Phillipsburg has historically been a major transportation hub. From the 1820s to 1920s, was the western terminus of the Morris Canal, which connected it by water eastward to the Port of New York and New Jersey and westward via the Lehigh Canal across the Delaware River. Five major railroads converged in Phillipsburg, the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), the DL&W's Morris and Essex Railroad, the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad (L&HR), Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR), and the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) Belvidere Delaware Railroad. The CNJ first ran in 1852. Phillipsburg Union Station served CNJ and DL&W.

The CNJ tracks and bridge in Phillipsburg which was part of the CNJ main line became part of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad main line, the Lehigh Line now owned by Norfolk Southern Railway, while the PRR line in Phillipsburg is now the Belvidere and Delaware River Railway.

Roads and highways

As of May 2010, the town had a total of 59.21 miles (95.29 km) of roadways, of which 54.51 miles (87.73 km) were maintained by the municipality, 2.98 miles (4.80 km) by Warren County, 1.18 miles (1.90 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and 0.54 miles (0.87 km) by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

Major highways that enter Phillipsburg include U.S. Route 22 and Route 122. Interstate 78 passes through for less than a quarter-of-a-mile without any exits, but the closest interchange is in neighboring Pohatcong.

The town is connected to Pennsylvania across the Delaware River by the Easton–Phillipsburg Toll Bridge - (toll bridge carrying U.S. Route 22), Northampton Street Bridge (the "Free Bridge") and the Interstate 78 Toll Bridge (carrying Interstate 78), all of which are operated by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

Public transportation

NJ Transit bus service is provided on the 890 and 891 routes. It is also served by a bus line down Route 57 to Washington Township.

By air, Phillipsburg is served by Lehigh Valley International Airport.

Notable people

People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Phillipsburg include: