Dorchester Times: Suggestion Box: Comments For DACA

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Suggestion Box: Comments For DACA

This marks the third post in our "Suggestion Box" series. Today we want to provide Times readers

the opportunity to submit comments, recommendations and questions for the Dorchester Area Community Association (DACA).

As most readers know, DACA is Dorchester’s main community activity group. The organization's primary purpose is to organize social activities and improve the quality of life for Dorchester residents.

DACA meets the second Tuesday of every month at the Community Center at 7 p.m. DACA is always looking for enthusiastic individuals who want to better the community. For more information or to join, e-mail Dale Hayek at dhayek@farmersco-operative.com.

Again, we ask Times readers to keep their comments civil and thoughtful -- just as if you were speaking to DACA members face-to-face. Better yet, we suggest that area residents stop in the next DACA meeting, tentatively set for Sept. 11.

8 comments:

AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 11:29 AM
Thanks for all you do, DACA members. You show initiative; you show passion for your community; you care and you act. It does not go unnoticed!
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 12:33 PM
I'd like to see DACA buy one of the vacant downtown buildings, renovate it and rent it to a budding business person. The main obstacle to opening a business in a small town is the cost it takes to buy and restore the old buildings. If DACA did the restoration work, an entrepreuer could come in with less risk.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 2:05 PM
I understand the convenience that comes from signing in as anonymous, but sometimes it also makes it easy to write spiteful things we might not say if our identity were known. I challenge everyone who leaves a comment to write as though you were going to sign your real name.

Anonymous comments also make it difficult to respond if there are more than a couple anonymous without creating confusion over what remark the response is directed to. Use a little imagination and pick a nickname so responses can be directed to you.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 2:13 PM
This is a great idea anonymous, but DACA couldn't just buy and renovate a building. Much of the renovation would need to be done to best suit the business going into that site.

DACA could start a new business fund to be used for this purpose. What building and what renovation would have to be done on a competitive basis looking at the type of business and the need in Dorchester. The entrepreneur would need to prepare and submit a business plan to be evaluated for its reasonableness and chances for the business to succeed. It wouldn't make sense for DACA to get involved if the business isn't going to make it. Also, what kind of hard feelings will there be from someone who submits a plan but isn't approved?

I'm not saying this can't be done. It just needs to be looked at as a more involved concept. How about it DACA?
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 22, 2007 at 3:00 PM
The park shelter is being funded by the Dorchester Foundation, not the Dorchester Community Assn. DACA cannot hold more than a few working dollars. It's the Foundation that could legally loan out funds for a new business, etc. However, the Foundation has only enough funds at this time to complete the park shelter. The next project scheduled is "Welcome to Dorchester" sign(s). If people are interested in learning more about donating to the Foundation or how it works, the Board members would be willing to submit information to the blog or hold an informational meeting where everyone's questions could be answered.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Village DwellerAugust 22, 2007 at 4:47 PM
Thank you for the clarification, Carol. We appreciate the correction.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousAugust 23, 2007 at 2:42 PM
I would suggest to DACA to become the lead organization to organize the creation of a formal community website.

As a wholesale customer of Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), Dorchester is eligible to receive the benefit of development, management, and hosting of a community website at no cost to the community. There would be an initial registration fee for the domain name.

Apparently, Lorraine Anderson had first contacted NPPD about this program a few years ago and NPPD feels that it would be best to begin the process over again.

The process includes getting formal approval from the village board(it needs to go through them since they are technically the "customer" of (NPPD).

A design template is circulated to gather the relevant information like utility info, area business info, attractions, etc. Basic stuff. From my experience it's best to get a lot of people working on the gathering, this shows group cohesiveness and once done more people share in the accomplishment of reaching a unified goal. It would good to get the school students involved as well.

The completed template gets submitted to NPPD and eventually becomes "live".

Pretty simple, just takes some organization and a commitment to continue to update the thing so that the information doesn't become stale.

The major benefit of the website is in making the community more visible to those outside the area, and can help in the recruitment and attraction of new residents.

Check out http://www.nppd.com/About_Us/Additional_Files/community_websites.asp to see a list of other communities that have taken advantage of NPPD Web service.

Dorchester's contact with NPPD for web service is Lisa Mohr 402.563.5577.

Feel free to contact me if you want some more details.

stpauldevcorp@charterinternet.com
ReplyDelete
Replies
Village DwellerAugust 23, 2007 at 3:13 PM
Great idea, Mike. We second the motion.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

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."