Dorchester Times: In Search of Funding for Community Improvement Projects

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

In Search of Funding for Community Improvement Projects

Since the very first days this publication, our readers have suggested many ideas for community improvement projects. Regardless of the need or feasibility of these proposals, however, critics often counter by mentioning the challenge of funding these projects.

Whether it is paving the streets or addressing the water infrastructure, the common question asked is: where is the money going to come from? We thought we would work to uncover a few sources.

According to NEBRASKA DEVELOPMENT NEWS, a monthly newsletter published by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED), communities can find funding for community development activities through the Community Development Assistance Act (CDAA). The CDAA provides a 40 percent state tax credit to individuals, businesses, financial institutions and other entities that make eligible contributions of cash, services, or materials to approved community betterment projects.

A 40 percent tax credit is nothing to sneeze at. Applicants must be a village or other local government, or a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization. The area to be served by the project must be designated by DED as an area of economic distress.

Another source of funding is the Nebraska Lied Main Street program, which provides smaller Nebraska

communities with resources to help revitalize their main street districts through economic development and historic preservation. New communities are selected on a competitive application process. Nearby towns that have benefited from the program include Geneva.

While the CDAA and Main Street programs are neither silver bullet solutions nor are they easy to obtain, we think Dorchester leaders should consider both as potential pieces of the puzzle when it comes to funding sources.

6 comments:

AnonymousJuly 31, 2007 at 3:24 PM
I guess i am a little confused at the idea of improving the water system. We are currently paying off a bill for a system that was fixed a short time ago.

Our water samples are collected each month and tested. What is wrong with the water???
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Village DwellerJuly 31, 2007 at 4:27 PM
Fair question, Anonymous.

We did not intend to imply that there are major problems with Dorchester's water infrastructure or water quality. In our post, we simply mentioned a couple of big ticket expenses that typically face all communities (streets, water systems, etc.).

Compared to nearby communities, we are pleased with Dorchester's water delivery.

However, we agree with a reader who recently commented about the water tower's appearance. It could use some work.
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2007 at 4:47 PM
I would comment as clarification, the Lied Main Street Program in Nebraska does not offer funding. The Main Street Program is more like a self-help program that organizes and motivates the communities to become more commercially viable through strategies like design, promotion and overall business education. It's a good program but it's takes passionate people with positive attitudes, which have become snags in other communities that have tried it.

Because this is a "search for funding" topic I will also include this:

Community Enhancement Program
The Nebraska Community Enhancement Program (CEP) is a cooperative effort of the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR), Nebraska Forest Service and Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. This program makes available federal transportation funds to assist communities and other public entities in Nebraska with the implementation of landscaping projects on public property that improve the state's transportation corridors. Typical projects include trail and street tree plantings, highway corridor improvements, and landscape enhancements to community signs and entry-ways. For information about the program, contact Sue Kohles at (402) 472-2212 or email skohles2@unl.edu.

Could be used for some new landscaping efforts along the islands, or to create an entry garden by the museum...a lot of opportunity.

Check out the site
http://arboretum.unl.edu/community.html
for more information on this grant.
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Village DwellerJuly 31, 2007 at 4:55 PM
Thank you, Mike. We appreciate your expertise and suggestions.

We especially like the idea of the garden entry to the museum. Hopefully our Saline Historical Society members are reading.
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2007 at 5:20 PM
Here's another state program I'd recommend that Dorchester leaders examine: the Entrepreneurial Communities Act provides grants to entrepreneurial projects. Only local units of government are eligible for these grant funds. If your town qualifies, funds can be obtained to encourage business owners to occupy your main street. Wouldn't it be great to see the town buy and fix up one of the main street buildings and rent it to an entreprenuer with a good business idea?
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AnonymousAugust 9, 2007 at 6:27 PM
Look Dorchester has been remembered: The Hometown Heritage Club recognizes our friends who have made provisions in their estate plans with a future gift intention of any amount for the Nebraska Community Foundation or an affiliated fund.
Marcia A. Boden-Dorchester
Marcia A. Boden Gift Annuity Fund
(Dorchester)http://www.nebcommfound.org/
AnnualReports/2006annualreport-fax.pdf
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Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."