Chatham Township, New Jersey

Chatham Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population was 10,086.

Chatham Township was incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 12, 1806, from portions of Hanover Township and Morris Township, based on the results of a referendum held on March 10, 1806. At the time Chatham Township was created it was to govern the villages of Chatham, Florham Park, Green Village, Madison (Bottle Hill) and the extensive rural areas surrounding these villages.

A community settled in the early 1700s as Bottle Hill and located in Morris Township when the area was within the English Province of New Jersey, after being governed by Chatham Township was enlarged with portions of the township on December 27, 1889, separated from the township, and renamed Madison.

The village, John Day's Bridge, that had been settled in 1710, adopted the name of Chatham in 1773 when New Jersey was an English province. On August 19, 1892, Chatham, which, like Madison, also had been settled in the early 1700s within Morris Township and was an active community in the revolution, adopted the village form of government under the American state of New Jersey and formally separated as a borough on March 1, 1897 when that form of government became available.

Florham Park was formed from portions of the township on March 9, 1899.

Most of Green Village never withdrew from the township governmental boundaries.

New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Chatham Township as the 9th best place to live in New Jersey in its 2005 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey.

Geography
Chatham Township is located at °N, °W (40.728203 -74.415657).

According to the United States Census Bureau, Chatham Township has a total area of 9.4 square miles (24.2 km2), of which, 9.3 square miles (24.2 km2) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km2) of it (0.21%) is water.

Green Village is an unincorporated area that is also partially in Harding Township. Green Village is the site of the Rolling Knolls Landfill, a landfill identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a Superfund site. The landfill is bordered on two sides by the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and was formerly known as Miele's Dump, after owner Robert Miele.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 10,086 people, 3,920 households, and 2,771 families residing in Chatham Township. The population density was 1,081.0 people per square mile (417.4/km2). There were 4,019 housing units at an average density of 430.8/sq mi (166.3/km2). The racial makeup was 93.71% White, 0.45% African American, 0.06% Native American, 4.81% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.15% from other races, and 0.81% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.95% of the population.

There were 3,920 households out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.4% were married couples living together, 5.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.3% were non-families. 26.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.11.

The population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 3.7% from 18 to 24, 28.7% from 25 to 44, 27.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 90.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males.

The median income for a household was $106,208, and the median income for a family was $131,609. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $58,750 for females. The per capita income was $65,497. About 1.9% of families and 2.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 2.9% of those age 65 or over.

Local government
Chatham Township is governed under the Township form of government with a five-member Township Committee. The Township Committee is elected directly by the voters in partisan elections to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with one or two seats coming up for election each year. At an annual reorganization meeting, the Township Committee selects one of its members to serve as Mayor.

The mayor serves as the chair of the township committee and has powers vested in the mayor's office by general law.

The township committee is the legislative branch of the community's government and establishes policies for the administration of the various departments. The committee appoints the township administrator who is responsible for carrying out those policies and overseeing the day to day operations.

Subcommittees of the township committee are public safety; public works; planning, engineering, and land use; parks and recreation; general administration; and finance. Two members of the township committee serve on each and provide oversight to the departments.

Members of the Chatham Township Committee are Mayor Kevin R. Tubbs, Deputy Mayor Bailey Brower, Jr., Robert Gallop, Nicole Hagner and William O'Connor.

Federal, state and county representation
Chatham Township is in the Eleventh Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 21st Legislative District.

History
In 1773, Chatham, governed by the English township of Morris since its settlement in 1710, was renamed in honor of Sir William Pitt, a British prime minister and the first Earl of Chatham who was most favorable toward the colonists of the Province of New Jersey in issues with the British government. Participation in the revolutionary war was significant by the citizens of Chatham. Nearby Morristown was the military center of the revolution, where the winter headquarters were established twice, and revolutionary troops were active in the entire area regularly.

The township form of government is the oldest form of municipal government in New Jersey since it became an American state. That form of local government dates back to the act of 1798 and during a reorganization of Morris County in 1806, Chatham Township was formed to include several colonial villages and settlements that had been made part of previously existing townships. A great deal of open, swampy, and mountainous land was included with the villages. For a while, the new township included what are now, Madison, Chatham, and Florham Park, as well as all of Green Village and all of the lands still governed by Chatham Township, but soon the principle villages began to secede because of contention over the funding of their projects.

Of the pre-revolutionary settlements gathered into it when it was formed, only portions of Green Village have remained governed by Chatham Township, which has never had a community center. The settled areas seceded from the township because of financial issues. Disposition of funds from taxes was perceived as inequitable to the settled areas given their needs versus that of the rural areas, causing them to form their own taxation and governance systems.

On December 27, 1889, based on the results of a referendum passed three days earlier, the village of Madison seceded from Chatham Township and adopted the borough form of government in order to develop a local water supply system for its population of 3,250. Madison annexed additional portions of Chatham Township in 1891, and annexed more each year from 1894-1898, followed finally, by an exchange of some lands in 1899 with Chatham Township.

In the midst of these changes, in 1892 "...Chatham Village found itself at odds with the rest of the township. Although village residents paid 40 percent of the township taxes, they got only 7 percent of the receipts in services. The village had to raise its own money to install kerosene street lamps and its roads were in poor repair. As a result, the village voted on August 9, 1892, to secede from the township."

The village that is now Florham Park first was part of Hanover Township, before being included in the township formed in 1806 as Chatham Township. It also seceded from Chatham Township and incorporated as Florham Park in 1899.

Green Village remained in the township until 1922, when portions of it became part of Harding Township, another new township. Its main intersection remains in Chatham Township.

The boundaries of Chatham Township finally settled down and have remained the same since 1922. Residential developments began in the late 1950s when farm lands and greenhouses began to be sold off and ownership of automobiles increased dramatically. By the 1960s its post WWII boom in housing was in full swing in Chatham Township.

The township remained rural until the 1960s and 1970s when rezoning enabled residential development of the open spaces to begin. Today, Chatham Township shares two joint public services with Chatham, the library and the school district.

Public Schools
Chatham and Chatham Township held elections in November 1986 to consider joining their (at the time separate) school districts. This proposal was supported by the voters of both communities and since then, the two municipalities have shared a regionalized school district, the School District of the Chathams. Chatham's school district is considered one of the best in the state, along with being one of the top public schools in the nation.

For the 2004-05 school year, Chatham High School was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive.

New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Chatham High School as the 10th best high school in New Jersey in its 2008 rankings of the "Top Public High Schools" in New Jersey.

Private school
Chatham Day School, founded in 1998, is a private coeducational day school located in Chatham Township, serving students in preschool through eighth grade. The school has a total enrollment of 115 students. The school recently changed its name from The Darcy School.

Transport
New Jersey Transit provides ample public transport to Chatham Township.

Rail transport
New Jersey Transit stops at the Chatham station to provide commuter service on the Morristown Line, with trains heading to the Hoboken Terminal and to New York Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. It is a short drive from most of the township to the stations in Madison and Chatham, and for the southern part of the township, the Murray Hill station is closer still.

Bus transport
New Jersey Transit local bus service is provided on the MCM3 and MCM8 routes.

Notable residents

 * Chris Carlin (born 1972), radio producer and sportscaster at WFAN Sports Radio 66 in New York City.