Dorchester Times: Listening Session On Dorchester Housing, Tonight At 5 P.M.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Listening Session On Dorchester Housing, Tonight At 5 P.M.

Last year, a large number of Times readers told us they wanted Dorchester officials to prioritize the removal or clean-up of blighted homes and properties. So we were encouraged in August when the Village of Dorchester was the recipient of a $10,200 Community Development Block Grant to develop a housing market study.

Now it is time for us -- the residents of the Dorchester area -- to do our part and make things happen for Dorchester and its housing needs.

The Village of Dorchester is conducting a listening session tonight -- at 5 p.m. at the Dorchester Fire Hall -- for the public to hear/discuss housing issues, opportunities and results from the recent Housing Needs and Wants Surveys and Workforce Housing Needs Surveys. That's according to Gloria Riley, Dorchester's Village Clerk.

All residents from Dorchester and the surrounding area are encouraged to attend.

Hanna:Keelan Associates, P.C. -- a community planning firm in Lincoln -- is overseeing the housing study and listening session. According to information we've received, the housing study will address issues important to Dorchester, including population growth, income of residents, a housing stock analysis, strategies for new and affordable housing, and a five-year action plan. The plan will also look at ways to insure adequate housing for Dorchester's aging population -- those in their 60s and beyond.

Questions? E-mail Gloria Riley at dorchester@diodecom.com.

6 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 15, 2013 at 7:32 AM
They note you can win a $50 gift certificate; but, where is this gift certificate to?
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AnonymousFebruary 15, 2013 at 11:15 PM
Joe's Bar lol
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AnonymousMarch 4, 2013 at 10:17 AM
It's great to see the town take on this issue. I truly believe good and great housing won't come to dorchester until the streets are paved, at least some of them, but it's good to see us stride for improved living conditions. Our community can grow if we just show that we are proud of our town. Let's give our kids a reason to stay and come back.
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Penny KMarch 4, 2013 at 9:16 PM
How/when/where are these types of meetings advertised prior to the day of the actual meeting?
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AnonymousMarch 5, 2013 at 11:27 AM
To Penny - I'm just a random citizen but i think everyone should have received a notice in the mail. i did.
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Penny KMarch 5, 2013 at 9:33 PM
Thank you, Random Citizen :) I live in Crete but am very interested in Dorchester since my kids go to school there. Maybe the Village office will add me to their mailing list.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."