Dorchester Times: Elwood, Neb. Provides Examples On How Small Towns Can Improve

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Elwood, Neb. Provides Examples On How Small Towns Can Improve

"Our town is too small to see any real progress."

"No one will ever build a new home in our small town."

"We can't get people to move here. We're too small."

Sound familiar?

If anyone ever whines like that in Elwood, Neb. -- population 707 -- we're fairly certain the town as a whole responds to the whiner the way former President Reagan responded to his interrupting critics.

Like Dorchester, Elwood contains fewer than 750 people. And like Dorchester, Elwood is about 12 minutes south of I-80 and near a packing plant community (Lexington).

But what makes Elwood stand out are its ongoing efforts to maintain, grow and develop itself, all of which were highlighted in a story we were e-mailed.

Just look at what this small town has done to improve:

Elwood is the smallest of 38 communities to earn the Nebraska Department of Economic Development's certification to designate those communities that are taking important steps to attract new industries and grow existing businesses. State officials honored village leaders last week during Elwood’s annual Chamber of Commerce banquet.

Among Elwood’s development programs is its “Free Lot Program,” to recruit new residents to the community through homesteading efforts. Since 2011, the free lots spurred seven new homes and eight more lots are currently available for construction. The program gained praise on the late Paul Harvey’s radio show and PBS’s “This Old House” television series. Consumer Reports also mentioned Elwood in an article about America’s top five towns that still offer homesteading (free land if you live there for a set number of years).

In addition, Elwood developed a Speculative House Risk Sharing Program, which allows contractors and home builders to share the risk of interest during a home’s construction.

Since 2011, program leaders have successfully recruited an attorney, a new beauty salon, and a daycare to the area.

Fourteen full-time jobs have been created in several new businesses there, including the Elwood Hometown Cooperative Market, Northern Agri Service, Elwood Auto Sales, Turkey Creek Seed Solutions, Scharf Construction, and Weissert Hardwood Floors.

A Community Development Block Grant for downtown revitalization was secured in 2012, which resulted in the completion of a new library and rehab assistance to 12 businesses. In addition, a Nebraska Civic and Convention Center Financing Act grant began efforts to build a community wellness center spearheaded by school and village officials.

Private donations allowed for structural and energy improvements at the Gosper County Senior Center.

In 2015, the community completed a housing market study, in 2016, Elwood was selected to participate in a Nebraska Investment Finance Authority-supported initiative to create workforce housing. Elwood is currently working with Dawson Area Development and the communities of Lexington and Cozad on a regional housing program to create a viable workforce within Gosper and Dawson Counties.

Over the past five years, the Elwood Area Foundation raised $55,000 annually to contribute to community improvements. The village’s Redevelopment Authority funds have also been used to recruit talent through payment assistance of student loans, housing costs, and business start-ups.

In 2015, voters enacted a 1% sales tax increase to fund village development projects.

Too small to grow? Too tiny to improve? To that, Elwood, Neb. says: "Oh, shut up!"

Nice going, Elwood.

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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."