Belvidere, New Jersey, United States

🇺🇸 Belvidere is a town in Warren County, New Jersey, United States. It is the county seat of Warren County. Belvidere is located in the eastern section of the Lehigh Valley.

Belvidere was incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 7, 1845, from portions of Oxford Township, based on the results of a referendum held that day. The town's name means "beautiful to see" in Italian.

Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 1.48 square miles (3.84 km²), including 1.45 square miles (3.75 km²) of land and 0.04 square miles (0.09 km²) of water (2.36%). Dildine Island is located in the Delaware River, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Belvidere.

Belvidere borders White Township in Warren County and Northampton County in Pennsylvania across the Delaware River.

Economy A large site of DSM Nutritional Products that includes 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) of facilities in the town, manufacturing products including arachidonic acid and beta-carotene by fermentation processes, is located on the town's border with White Township.

Local government Belvidere is governed under the Town form of municipal government. The town is one of nine municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this traditional form of government. The governing body is comprised of the mayor and the six-member Town Council, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. A mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office. The town council consists of 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.

As of 2022, the Mayor of Belvidere is Republican Kathy B Miers, whose term of office ends December 31, 2023. Members of the Town Council are Council President Laurel Napolitani (R, 2023), Glen E. Matlock (R, 2022; elected to serve an unexpired term), Kathleen Miers (R, 2023), Donald Mitchell (R, 2022), Joseph Roth (R, 2024) and Adam Zmigrodski (R, 2024).

Glen Matlock was elected in November 2020 to serve the term of office expiring in December 2022 that had been held by Charles A. Makatura Jr. until he resigned from office in January 2020.

In March 2015, the town council selected Timothy Petre from three candidates nominated by the Republican municipal committee to fill the seat expiring in December 2017 that had been held by William J. Murphy until he resigned from office. Petre served on an interim basis until the November 2015 general election, when Laurel Napolitani was elected to serve the balance of the term of office.

In December 2014, the town council selected Laurel Napolitani from among three names nominated by the Republican municipal committee to fill the term expiring in December 2016 that had been held by Michael Viglianco, who resigned from council in December 2014 after moving out of Belvidere. Napolitani served on an interim basis until the November 2015 general election, when Walter Tutka was elected to serve the balance of the term of office.

Belvidere is located in the 7th Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 23rd state legislative district.

Education The Belvidere School District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of two schools, had an enrollment of 631 students and 61.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.3:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are Oxford Street Elementary School with 262 students in grades PreK-8, and Belvidere High School with 367 students in grades 9-12. As part of a cost-saving measure, Third Street School was closed after the 2018–2019 school year and merged into Oxford Street Elementary School. Students from Harmony Township, Hope Township and White Township attend the district's high school as part of sending/receiving relationships with the respective districts.

Students from the town and from all of Warren County are eligible to attend Ridge and Valley Charter School in Blairstown (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 Pre-K–12).

Belvidere was rated one of the Top 5 Schools in each county with the highest rate of drug/violence/bullying incidents, based on the number of incidents per every 100 enrolled students.

Transport As of May 2010, the town had a total of 16.39 miles (26.38 km) of roadways, of which 14.38 miles (23.14 km) were maintained by the municipality and 2.01 miles (3.23 km) by Warren County.

The most prominent highway is County Route 620.

The Riverton–Belvidere Bridge crosses the Delaware River, connecting Belvidere with Riverton, Pennsylvania, operated by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. There is no toll for crossing on either side, after tolls were abolished by the Joint Commission for the Elimination of Toll Bridges in 1929. The bridge is 653 feet (199 m) long, connecting County Route 620 Spur (Water Street) in Belvidere to former Pennsylvania Route 709 on the Riverton side.

Places of interest • Belvidere Cemetery – Dating back to 1834, the cemetery is the burial site of several historical figures, many associated with the Civil War, and has been included in tours conducted as part of the town's annual Victorian Days celebration. • Foul Rift is a Class II rapids on the Delaware River located south of Belvidere, in which a drop of 22 feet (6.7 m) in elevation in a span of 0.5 miles (0.80 km) creates one of the river's most dangerous stretches. • Four Sisters Winery – Established in 1984, the winery was named for the four daughters of the founders. • Robert Morris House – Built by Robert Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the house is one of the town's oldest homes. • Warren County Courthouse – Future New Jersey governor-elect Garret D. Wall (who declined to serve as governor after being elected in 1829) donated the land in 1825 and the courthouse was completed in 1826 at a cost of $10,000. In 1892, the courthouse was the site of the county's most recent public hanging. • Warren County Museum – Now the home of the Warren County Historical and Genealogical Society, the museum is located on Garret D. Wall county square in a townhome constructed c. 1848 and purchased in 1980 which now store many items related to the history of Warren County.