Essex Junction is a village in the town of Essex, Chittenden County, Vermont, United States incorporated on November 15, 1892. The population was 8,591 at the 2000 census.
Essex Junction is home to the Champlain Valley Exposition which hosts the Champlain Valley Fair at the end of each summer.
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service to Essex Junction, which serves as a focal point for rail travel in the greater Burlington area, which includes Essex and Winooski. Amtrak operates its Vermonter from St. Albans, VT to Washington, D.C..
The Village of Essex Junction is also one of three voting districts (District 6-2) in the Town of Essex, with Districts 6-1 & 6-3 together comprising the town outside the village. The Village and Town each operate their own fire department, library, parks department, and municipal services, and contain separate school districts for grades K–8. Both governments operate a unified police department, and the unified Essex High School.
Essex Junction is home to IBM's Burlington Design Center and 200 mm wafer fabrication plant. IBM is the state's largest private employer, with approximately 6500 employees.
History
Modern history has been affected in a major way by the presence of the IBM corporation which chose the village as a site in 1957.
IBM
In 1957, IBM leased a 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) facility for its new Data Processing Division. By the end of the year, there were 500 workers. In 1969, the plant expanded to 820,000 square feet (76,000 m2). In 1982, employment reached an all-time high of 8,000. In 2007, the town listers dropped the value of the plant from a high of $147.5 million to $104 million.[3]
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12.6 km²), of which, 4.8 square miles (12.3 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (1.86%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 8,591 people, 3,409 households, and 2,253 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,804.1 people per square mile (696.8/km²). There were 3,501 housing units at an average density of 735.2/sq mi (284.0/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 95.55% White with a large proportion of those 53% being of Irish descent, 0.69% African American, 0.24% Native American, 2.36% Asian, 0.29% from other races, and 0.86% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.14% of the population.
There were 3,409 households out of which 35.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.9% were non-families. 26.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.04.
In the village the population was spread out with 26.4% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.
Economy
Personal income
The median income for a household in the village was $53,444, and the median income for a family was $61,985. Males had a median income of $40,287 versus $26,910 for females. The per capita income for the village was $24,142. About 1.8% of families and 2.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.6% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over.[1]
Industry
The largest industrial facility in Vermont is IBM's semiconductor plant in Essex Junction.[citation needed]
Government
In 2007, the IBM plant had the largest assessment in the town, $104 million dollars.[4]
Merger
| Town vote to merge |
Revote |
| District |
2006-11-07 |
2007-01-23 |
| Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
| 6-1 (outside village) |
1,283 |
2,319 |
690 |
2,528 |
| 6-3 (outside village) |
365 |
822 |
| 6-2 (within village) |
2,728 |
1,026 |
2,009 |
362 |
| Townwide totals |
4,376 |
4,167 |
2,699 |
2,890 |
| Village vote to accept |
No revote
required,
result was
uncontested. |
| |
2,922 |
1,085 |
The Village of Essex Junction was formed—within the Town of Essex—on 1892-11-15. The Village was formed to provide services (such as sidewalks, water, and sewers) to the villagers that the rest of the, mostly rural, town citizens did not want, and did not want to pay for.
As the town outside the village developed, it added similar services. By 1958, the first hints of merger showed up in a voter petition. Since then a series of votes (often contentious) had defeated or passed merger in each community, but never at the same time in both. The state legislature required a positive vote in both.
This temporarily changed on 2006-11-07 when merger passed in the town as a whole, and in the village. Everyone in the town voted on the merger; the Villagers voted in a second ballot on the merger if it passed the townwide vote. The large regional paper initially misreported the results as a defeat of the merger, based solely on the vote results outside the village.[5] The next day the correct results were reported in both the town’s paper,[6] and as a correction in the regional paper.[7]
On 2006-12-06 a petition to reconsider the merger was submitted to the town. The petition contained signatures totaling more than 5 percent of registered voters, which is the threshold required to force a re-vote.[8] The revote was held on 2007-01-23 with a result that overturned merger by 191 votes, rejecting the current merger proposal.[9]
If the results had stood, a multi-year merger process would have resulted in a new Town of Essex Junction replacing the current governments of the Town of Essex and the Village of Essex Junction.
Notable natives
See also
References
- ^ a b c "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. http://geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ McLean, Dan and Ryan, Matt (January 28, 2009). LAYOFFS:Long-feared job losses hit IBM. Burlington Free Press.
- ^ Ryan, Matt (July 28, 2007). Value drops at IBM plant. Burlington Free Press.
- ^ Welch, Victoria (2006-11-08), "Essex Defeats Merger 2-1", Burlington Free Press .
- ^ Tyler, George (2006-11-09), "Merger Wins: Confusion over vote count", Essex Reporter .
- ^ Welch, Victoria (2006-11-09), "Essex merger moves forward: An apology to our Essex readers", Burlington Free Press .
- ^ Welch, Victoria (2006-12-07), "New rift emerges in Essex merger", Burlington Free Press .
- ^ Welch, Victoria (2007-01-24), "This time, Essex rejects merger" ([dead link] – Scholar search), Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/NEWS01/701240311/1009 .
External links
Coordinates: 44°29′26″N 73°06′39″W / 44.49056°N 73.11083°W / 44.49056; -73.11083
