Kenilworth

Kenilworth is a borough in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 7,914, reflecting an increase of 239 (+3.1%) from the 7,675 counted in the 2000 Census. The name Kenilworth came from a literary society which the businessmen belonged to. Lenape Park is a 450-acre (180 ha) wildlife reserve and park that is part of the Rahway River Parkway. Area residents have proposed a 7.3-mile pedestrian linear park along the "main line" of the abandoned Rahway Valley Railroad that would run through the borough. The New Jersey Department of Transportation, which owns the railbed, has been working to clear it in anticipation of possible future trail use for pedestrians and cyclists. A northern portion of the rail trail on the RVRR main line is under construction as the Summit Park Line, with a footbridge over Morris Avenue installed in October 2022. The borough is bordered to the north and east by Union Township, to the southeast by Roselle Park, to the southwest by Cranford, and to the northwest by Springfield Township. It is located on the New Jersey Turnpike, which runs from New Jersey to New York. The Bergen County Jail is located in the borough, which is on the Bergen-Lackawassee line of the Delaware River. It has a population of 2,841, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

History

The name "Kenilworth" was chosen when the borough was incorporated in 1907. The name came from a literary society (The Kenilworth Club) which the businessmen belonged to. The club was named in honor of a novel written in 1821 by Sir Walter Scott. The novel refers to England's KenILworth Castle located in Kenil Worth, England. Upsala College was lured to New Orange with an offer of cash and free land for its campus. New Orange was often confused with one of The Oranges in Essex County, so the name was chosen to distinguish the two. The borough is now home to the New York City Mets, New York Yankees, and New York Knicks. It is also the home of the New Jersey Devils, New Jersey Nets, and the New England Patriots. The New Jersey Turnpike was built in the 1930s and 1940s on the site of a former rail yard. It was named after the town of New Jersey, which was once part of the state. The city's name is now used to refer to New Jersey's largest borough, the city of Newark. It also has the name of the borough's second largest city, the City of New York, which is located in the borough of Queens. The town of Cranford and Union was the birthplace of the city's first school, Cranford High School, which opened in 1876. It later became the home to New York State College, a public university. The village of Union and Cranford was founded in the 1880s.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 2.15 square miles (5.57 km²) The borough is bordered to the north and east by Union Township, to the southeast by Roselle Park, and to the southwest by Cranford. The upper reaches of Rahway River Parkway along tributaries of the Rahway river run through the borough. The borough has a population of 1,788. It is located on the New Jersey Turnpike, which runs from New Jersey to New York City and New Jersey's East River. The Turnpikes are the main route between New Jersey and New York. It also runs through Springfield Township, which is located to the northwest. The Borough's population is 1,856, according to the United States Census Bureau. It has a land area of 2.15 square miles (5.56 km²) and a water area of 0.01 square miles (0.19 sq m) of water (0 19% of the borough's total area). The borough's population was 1,774 as of the 2010 Census, and it has a total population of 1,764. It was the first borough in the state to reach 1,800 in the early 20th century. Its population peaked at 1,938 in the mid-19th century, when it was the largest borough in New Jersey. Its current population is about 1,700.

Parks and recreation

Lenape Park is a 450-acre (180 ha) wildlife reserve and park that is part of the Rahway River Parkway in Union County. Residents have proposed a 7.3-mile pedestrian linear park along the "main line" of the abandoned Rahway Valley Railroad that would run through Kenilworth. A northern portion of the rail trail on the RVRR main line is under construction as the Summit Park Line, with a footbridge over Morris Avenue installed in October 2022. The New Jersey Department of Transportation, which owns the railbed, has been working to clear it in anticipation of possible future trail use for pedestrians and cyclists. The trail would run eastbound from Overlook Medical Center on the edge of downtown Summit and head south through Springfield, Union, over Route 22 to KenILworth. It would pass between Party City and Burger King on Route 22, run behind Retro Fitness, running south past the Galloping Hill Golf Course and ACME Markets, and end at the southwest edge of Roselle Park at the Cranford border. In parallel, advocates have been pushing for immediate development of the portion of. the R VRR Main Line south of Route 22. The park also includes portions of Cranford, Springfield and Westfield. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2018 or early 2019, with the first phase of the trail expected to open in early 2019. It will run through the towns of Springfield, Westfield, and Ken ILworth.

Demographics

As of the 2000 United States Census there were 7,675 people, 2,854 households, and 2,117 families residing in the borough. The median household income was $76,500 (with a margin of error of +/ $8,607) and the median family Income was $84,097 (+/ $6,220) In the borough the population was spread out, with 20.8% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 28.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.15. The racial makeup of the borough was 92.30% White, 2.30%. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 8.64%. About 4.0% of families and 5.7%. of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.6. of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 90.0 males. The per capita income for the Borough was $31,959 (+ / $2,853) The median age was 40.9 years. The population density was 3,668.3 per square mile (1,416.3/km²). There were 2,926 housing units at an average density of 1,366.7 per mile (527.9/ km²).

Economy

Merck & Co. announced plans in October 2013 to move its global headquarters to Kenilworth from Whitehouse Station in Readington Township. The campus had been used as the global headquarters for Schering-Plough, which was acquired by Merck in 2009. Maingear, a privately held computer manufacturer specializing in custom gaming computers, desktops, custom laptops, media center computers and workstations, all of which are manufactured in the United States. In April 2020, Merck announced that it would be moving its global HQ to Rahway by the end of 2023, with the relocation expected to be completed by 2015. The company's global HQ will be in Rahway, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, with a population of 1.2 million. The headquarters will be located on a site that the company had previously used as a manufacturing facility, on the site of a former manufacturing facility. The move is expected to take place by 2015, and the relocation is scheduled to be complete by the year's end. The new headquarters will have a workforce of about 2,000. The site will be used for research and development, as well as for manufacturing and testing of new drugs and vaccines. It will also be home to the Merck Research and Development Center, which will be based on the company's drug discovery and development process. The building will be known as Merck's "Research and Development Building" and will be open to the public by the summer of 2015. It is the first of its kind.

Arts and culture

Hudson Shakespeare Company has brought Shakespeare in the Park programs to the Kenilworth Library since 2004. The Friends of the KenILworth Library, with the assistance of a grant from the Union County Office of Cultural Affairs, sponsor these events. The "Bard on the Boulevard" is a free, open-to-the-public event held in the library's parking lot. The event is open to the public and free to members of the public.

Government

Kenilworth is governed under the Borough form of New Jersey municipal government, which is used in 218 municipalities (of the 564) statewide. The Mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The Borough Council is comprised of six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis. 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. New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Democrats Cory Booker and Bob Menendez. The Board of Commissioners of Union County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners, whose nine members are elected at-large on an staggered basis with three seats up for election each year in a 3-year cycle. Kenilworth was in New Jersey's 10th Congressional District until the 2011 reapportionment following the 2010 Census. For the 117th U.S. Congress, New Jersey had been in the 20th state legislative district (D Donald Payne Jr, Newark). For the 21st state legislative session, New NJ is represented by Democrats Jon Bramnickis and Michele Matsikoudis (R, Providence and Nancy Munoz, New Providence) and in the General Assembly by Michele Matsickis and Jon Westfield (R), both of whom are also members of the New Jersey House of Representatives. The borough is part of the Hudson-Bergen County Line, which runs from Monmouth County to Ocean County. The county line is one of the state's most densely populated areas.

Education

The Kenilworth Public Schools serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 201819 school year, the district, comprised of two schools, had an enrollment of 1,466 students and 126.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a studentteacher ratio of 11.6:1. The district is home to a Roman Catholic elementary school at St. Theresa's, which was founded in 1954. Students from Winfield Township attend David Brearley High School as part of a sending/receiving relationship with the Winfield township school district. The school district is part of the New Jersey Department of Education's New Jersey Core Public School System. It is the only district in the state to have a public school system that serves both public and parochial schools. The state's public schools have a combined enrollment of more than 1.2 million students (on a K-12 basis) as of the 2010-11 school year. The number of students in the district has increased by more than 2,000 since the 1990-91 school year and is expected to rise again in the 2020-21 school year as the state population continues to grow. The public school district has a population of 1.4 million students. It has a total enrollment of 2.7 million students, up from 1.8 million students in 2010-2011, and is projected to reach 2.9 million by the 2015-16 school year and 3.1 million by 2018-19.

Transportation

Kenilworth is served by two county routes, County Route 509 (CR 509) and CR 617. The Rahway Valley Railroad passed through the community but is currently out of service. NJ Transit provides bus service between Kenilworth and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The closest NJ Transit rail station is Roselle Park, less than a mile from the borough's border. The Garden State Parkway cuts northeastsouthwest through the town, with Interchange 138 at CR 509 serving much of the town's long-distance travelers. Newark Liberty International Airport is approximately 9 miles (14 km) from KenILworth. The borough has a total of 29.62 miles (47.67 km) of roadways, of which 24.22 miles (38.98 km) were maintained by the municipality, 4.00 miles (6.44 km) by Union County and 0.04 miles (0.064km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. In May 2010, the borough had a population of 2,715. It is located in the Bergen County section of New Jersey, which is part of the Hudson-Bergen County region of the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan Statistical Area (NYMPA). The NYMPA is the state's second-busiest bus system, after New Jersey's Port Authority, with an average daily ridership of 1,716.5.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Kenilworth, Union County, New Jersey = 2.8. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 13. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 20. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Kenilworth = 3.8 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 8,427 individuals with a median age of 42 age the population dropped by -0.60% in Kenilworth, Union County, New Jersey population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 3,925.0 residents per square mile of area (1,515.5/km²). There are average 2.68 people per household in the 2,846 households with an average household income of $71,886 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 9.50% of the available work force and has dropped -3.41% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 23.68%. The number of physicians in Kenilworth per 100,000 population = 225.4.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Kenilworth = 50.6 inches and the annual snowfall = 22.7 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 118. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 202. 87 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 21.2 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 46, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Kenilworth, Union County, New Jersey which are owned by the occupant = 74.90%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 55 years with median home cost = $330,760 and home appreciation of -2.25%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $25.06 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $8,126 per student. There are 13.8 students for each teacher in the school, 664 students for each Librarian and 415 students for each Counselor. 5.14% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 11.12% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 4.01% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).