Phillipsburg, New Jersey Totally Explained

Everything about Phillipsburg New Jersey totally explained

Phillipsburg, known locally as P'burg, is a town in Warren County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 15,166.
Phillipsburg was incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 8, 1861, from portions of Phillipsburg Township (now Lopatcong Township).
The town is located in western New Jersey, on the border of Pennsylvania, and is considered the eastern border of the region's Lehigh Valley.

Geography

Phillipsburg is located at (40.689474, -75.185340).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 3.3 square miles (8.7 km²), of which, 3.2 square miles (8.3 km²) of it's land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km²) of it (3.29%) is water. Pohatcong Mountain is a ridge, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long, in the Appalachian Mountains that extends from Phillipsburg northeast approximately to Washington.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, 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/sq mi (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

Situated at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, Phillipsburg used to benefit from being a major transportation hub. 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 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 across the Delaware.

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, 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 also 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

The Belvidere and Delaware River Railway still serves the city's remaining industry and connects to the national rail network via a connection with Norfolk Southern in the city.
As of the fall of 2007, New Jersey Transit is conducting a study to determine if re-establishing a commuter rail extension of the Raritan Valley Line to Phillipsburg is economically feasible.

Government

Local government

Phillipsburg is governed under the Mayor-Council system of municipal government under the Faulkner Act. The Mayor of Phillipsburg is Harry L. Wyant, Jr.

(R, term of office ends December 31, 2007). He is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Town Council Members are Council President David DeGerolamo (D, 2011), Council Vice President, James P. Stettner (D, 2011), John Damato (D, 2009), William M. Merrick (D, 2009) and James M. Shelly (D, 2009).

Federal, state and county representation

Phillipsburg is in the Fifth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 23rd Legislative District.

Education

The Phillipsburg School District serves public school students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district is one of 31 Abbott Districts statewide.
The schools in the district (with 2005-06 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Green Street School

(Grades PreK-5; 645 students), Barber School

(Grades 1&2; 187), Freeman School

(Grades 1&2; 197), Andover-Morris School

(Grades 3-5; 246) and Phillipsburg Middle School

(Grades 6-8; 608). A recently constructed building, The Early Childhood Learning Center, serves preschool children in the area. Students in grades 9-12 attend Phillipsburg High School (1,720) which serves students from the town of Phillipsburg and from five neighboring communities at the secondary level: Alpha, Bloomsbury (in Hunterdon County), Greenwich Township, Lopatcong Township and Pohatcong Township, who attend as part of sending/receiving relationships. Although the school sports an historic attractive building, a multi-million dollar football stadium and sport training facility, and one of the state's biggest football powerhouses, it remains as one of the lowest performing public schools in the state in academics and suffers from chronic overcrowding. The school district, which has struggled for over a decade to build a new school, continues to use a building which lacks up-to-date facilities and some handicap amenities and will soon introduce its 32nd temporary trailer to help its lack of classroom space. The state of New Jersey has owed the town of Phillipsburg funds for the construction of a new school for several decades but has delayed on payment.
Phillipsburg High School has an athletic rivalry with neighboring Easton, Pennsylvania's Easton Area High School, which celebrated its 100th anniversary game on Thanksgiving Day 2006. Phillipsburg lost the game.

Transportation

Many major highways pass through Phillipsburg, including U.S. Route 22, Route 122, and Interstate 78. New Jersey Transit bus service is provided on the 890 and 891 routes.

Notable present and former residents

Charlie Berry, former professional baseball player, Union Association, and father of Charlie Berry.
Charlie Berry, former professional baseball and football player and umpire in Major League Baseball.
William F. Birch (1870-1946) represented New Jersey's 5th congressional district from 1918 to 1919.
Tom Brennan, radio and television sportscaster and former men's basketball head coach, most notably at the University of Vermont from 1986 to 2005.
Wayne Dumont (1914-1992), former New Jersey Senate Majority Leader and Senate President.
Fiona (1961-), rock singer.
Terry Kitchen, folk singer.
Martin O. May (1922-1945), U.S. Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II.
Helen Stevenson Meyner (1929-1997), U.S. Representative from New Jersey from 1975 to 1979.
Lou Reda, documentary filmmaker.
Jim Ringo (1931-2007), former professional football player, Green Bay Packers.
Sheetal Sheth, actress.
Charles Sitgreaves, (1803-1878), represented New Jersey's 3rd congressional district from 1865 to 1869, and served as the mayor of Phillipsburg in 1861 and 1862.
Yvonne Zima (1989-), actress, "Rachel Greene" on NBC's ER.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Phillipsburg New Jersey'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://phillipsburg__new_jersey.totallyexplained.com">Phillipsburg, New Jersey Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.