Netcong is a borough in southwestern Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 3,375, Netcong lies on the shores of Lake Musconetcong.

Established as South Stanhope by workers employed as miners in Stanhope, the name "Netcong" was adopted for the community in 1889 when a post office used the name. Netcong was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on October 23, 1894, from portions of both Mount Olive Township and Roxbury Township, based on the results of a referendum held the previous day.

History

Netcong received its name from the Musconetcong River, named by the Lenape Native Americans and meaning "grass creek", "swamp stream", "rapid stream" or "clear stream place". Along with the river, the proximity of the old Morris and Sussex Turnpike, which passed through the region shortly after 1801, and the coming of the Morris Canal, in 1831, made the site a favorable one for development.

After becoming a borough, the residents had to elect the first governing body. The first mayor was Abraham J. Drake, elected November 14, 1894. A census of Netcong taken July 1895 showed a population of 877 people.

In 1968, AT&T announced that the company would be building a two-story building in the borough at the bottom of a hole underground. The facility, designed to connect a cable running between Boston and Miami, was designed to withstand a nuclear attack and continue 24-hour operations for as long as three weeks using supplies and generating capacity on the site.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 0.96 square miles (2.49&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>), including 0.83 square miles (2.16&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 0.13 square miles (0.33&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of water (13.33%).

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Netcong had a population of 3,375. The median age was 41.1 years. 18.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.0% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 92.9 males age 18 and over.

100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 1,434 households in Netcong, of which 25.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 40.9% were married-couple households, 20.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

2000 census

As of the 2000 United States census

The most common ancestries in Netcong is Italian (23.5%), Irish (11.4%), German (10.4%), English (6.6%), and Hungarian (3.3%)

There were 1,008 households, out of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.4% were non-families. 26.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.10. The governing body is comprised of the mayor and the borough council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. The mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The borough council includes six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats coming up for election each year in a three-year cycle. The borough form of government used by Netcong is a "weak mayor / strong council" government in which council members act as the legislative body with the mayor presiding at meetings and voting only in the event of a tie. The mayor can veto ordinances subject to an override by a two-thirds majority vote of the council. The mayor makes committee and liaison assignments for council members, and most appointments are made by the mayor with the advice and consent of the council.

, the mayor of Netcong is Republican Joseph A. Nametko, whose term of office ends December 31, 2023. Members of the Borough Council are Joseph W. Albensi III (R, 2024), Robert E. Hathaway Jr. (D, 2025), Thomas A. Laureys (R, 2025), Todd Morton (R, 2024), Elmer M. Still (R, 2023) and John "Jack" Sylvester Jr. (R, 2023).

Federal, state and county representation

Netcong is located in the 7th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 24th state legislative district.

Politics

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As of March 2011, there were a total of 1,754 registered voters in Netcong, of which 385 (21.9%) were registered as Democrats, 654 (37.3%) were registered as Republicans and 715 (40.8%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were no voters registered to other parties.

In the 2012 presidential election, Republican Mitt Romney received 55.1% of the vote (649 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 43.6% (514 votes), and other candidates with 1.3% (15 votes), among the 1,185 ballots cast by the borough's 1,870 registered voters (7 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 63.4%. In the 2008 presidential election, Republican John McCain received 56.3% of the vote (751 cast), ahead of Democrat Barack Obama with 42.1% (561 votes) and other candidates with 1.0% (13 votes), among the 1,334 ballots cast by the borough's 1,822 registered voters, for a turnout of 73.2%. In the 2004 presidential election, Republican George W. Bush received 62.3% of the vote (778 ballots cast), outpolling Democrat John Kerry with 36.5% (456 votes) and other candidates with 0.6% (10 votes), among the 1,249 ballots cast by the borough's 1,784 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 70.0.

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In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 73.6% of the vote (550 cast), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 23.4% (175 votes), and other candidates with 2.9% (22 votes), among the 770 ballots cast by the borough's 1,834 registered voters (23 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 42.0%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 59.0% of the vote (543 ballots cast), ahead of Democrat Jon Corzine with 30.3% (279 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 8.9% (82 votes) and other candidates with 0.9% (8 votes), among the 921 ballots cast by the borough's 1,787 registered voters, yielding a 51.5% turnout.

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Education

Netcong is home to the Netcong School District, which serves public school students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade at Netcong Elementary School. As of the 2022–23 school year, the district, comprised of one school, had an enrollment of 299 students and 32.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.3:1.

For ninth through twelfth grades, public school students attend Lenape Valley Regional High School, which serves students from Netcong and from the Sussex County communities of Byram Township and Stanhope. As of the 2022–23 school year, the high school had an enrollment of 667 students and 58.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.5:1. Seats on the high school district's nine-member board of education are allocated based on the populations of the constituent municipalities, with two seats assigned to Netcong. Netcong residents previously attended Netcong High School. The school closed in 1974 and the building became Netcong Elementary School.

St. Michael School is a Catholic school operated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, that was founded in 1923, and staffed by the Sisters of Christian Charity of Mendham starting in 1945. The school closed at the end of the school year in June 2016 and was merged with four other elementary schools and relocated to the campus at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, New Jersey.

Patron saint

thumb|[[Caesarius of Africa|St. Cesario deacon and martyr, Patron of Netcong.]]

thumb|left|Netcong, St. Michael's Church, Pact of Sister Cities with Cesa in honor of St. Cesario martyr, July 20, 2019

The patron saint of the borough is St. Cesario deacon and martyr of Terracina. In 1893 some Italian immigrants left their hometown of Cesa, a province of Caserta (Italy), to come to the United States. They settled in Netcong, attracted by job opportunities at the Singer Steel Foundry, and in the construction of the railroad which was replacing the Morris Canal as a means of transportation. They established the "St. Cesario Society" in 1902 in honor of their hometown's patron saint, Cesario deacon and martyr. Saint Cesario is venerated in St. Michael Church of Netcong; a bone fragment with the Latin cartouche "ex ossibus S. Caesarii diac. m." is preserved in this church, set in a silver reliquary, solemnly exposed on the high altar for the feast, celebrated on the penultimate Saturday of July. In Saint Michael's Church also includes a wooden statue of St. Cesario, a stained glass window and an icon (in the Sacristy) depicting the martyr.

On June 6, 2019, the mayor of Netcong, Joe Nametko, signed the Pact of Sister Cities with Cesa, in honor of St. Cesario.

Transportation

Roads and highways

thumb|right|[[Interstate 80 in New Jersey|Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 206 in Netcong]]

, the borough had a total of of roadways, of which were maintained by the municipality, by Morris County and by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Several major highways pass through Netcong, leading to the borough's motto of "All Roads Lead to Netcong". Major roadways in Netcong include Interstate 80 (the Bergen-Passaic Expressway), U.S. Route 46 and Route 183, the latter two highways meeting at the Netcong Circle. The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) uses Netcong as a control city on directional signage on its highways throughout northern New Jersey, and as far away as the George Washington Bridge, even though less than one-tenth of a mile of Interstate 80 is in the borough (from mile markers 26.33 to 26.42). Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 206 intersect with U.S. Route 46 in the southwest corner of the borough at Exit 26.

In 2007, the New Jersey Department of Transportation proposed the elimination of the Netcong Traffic Circle, located at the intersections of U.S. Route 46 and Route 183 just north of the interchange with Interstate 80, and its replacement with a signalized intersection. The circle itself dated back to construction in 1938 and was unable to handle the 17,000 vehicles a year that used the large roadway daily. The circle was the frequent site of vehicular accidents, including a total of 81 in 2007 and 2008. The project had issues dealing with the vertical clearance of the overpass for U.S. Route 46 westbound. The removal of the circle would eliminate this bridge, and the land would go to use as the new signalized intersection, with pedestrian and bicycle fittings. The entire project cost about $13.3 million of state and local funds to construct. A temporary interchange was implemented in January 2013, with the permanent intersection configuration completed that August.

Public transportation

thumb|250px|[[Netcong station|Netcong Train Station]]

NJ Transit operates weekday rail service at the Netcong station to Hoboken Terminal, with service to Penn Station in New York City via Midtown Direct on the Montclair-Boonton Line and the Morris & Essex Lines.

NJ Transit used to provide local service on the MCM5 route. The Morris County Department of Transportation provides bus service along Route 46 to Dover and Mount Olive Township.

Lakeland Bus Lines provides service along Route 80 between Newton and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.

In view of Netcong's rich railroad history, the borough has been named as a site for the New Jersey State Railroad and Transportation Museum (jointly with Phillipsburg). Given that the site envisioned for this museum in Phillipsburg has been sold for development as a townhouse complex and college campus annex, it is unclear what role Phillipsburg will play in this museum. Funding will need to be secured in order to build and operate this museum.

Notable people

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

  • John Giannantonio (born 1934), former football player whose 594.5 rushing yards per game average, 4,756 season rushing yards total, and single-game rushing 754 yards against Mountain Lakes High School, all set in 1950 as a sophomore at Netcong High School, remain national high school records as of 2016
  • Hugh Meade (1907–1949), congressman who represented Maryland's 2nd congressional district from 1947 to 1949
  • Reince Priebus (born 1972), chairman of the Republican National Committee

References

  • Borough of Netcong website
  • Netcong School District
  • School Data for the Netcong School District, National Center for Education Statistics
  • Lenape Valley Regional High School
  • Daily Record regional area newspaper
  • Netcong High School Mixed Chorus, (photo)
  • Netcong History and Historical Photos