Dorchester Times: Times Taking Nominations for Village Board Candidates

Monday, September 24, 2007

Times Taking Nominations for Village Board Candidates

The Dorchester Times wants to know who you would like to see run for Dorchester Village Board next year.

From now until Saturday, Sept. 29, the Times will accept the names of individuals nominated by our readers. The names should be e-mailed to dorchestertimes@gmail.com or can be left in the comments section of this post. Then we will announce the names of the individuals who receive the most nominations from Times readers.

Nominees must be residents of Dorchester and must be 18 years or older by November 2008. Nominees can be current or past board members, or have no history of public service.

As reported earlier, two seats on the village board will be up for re-election in 2008. Those seats are currently held by board members Alan Slepicka and Dean Pracheil.

A reminder: those interested in running for either the Dorchester Village Board or Dorchester Board of Education must file by July 15, 2008, by submitting the proper paperwork to the Saline County Clerk and Elections Commissioner. Additional information can be obtained by calling (402) 821-2374 or e-mailing clerk@saline.nacone.org.

8 comments:

AnonymousSeptember 24, 2007 at 9:15 PM
John Bruha would be an excellent public servant. In a way, he already is.
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AnonymousSeptember 24, 2007 at 11:18 PM
The two members who are up next year are good board members.

I nominate them to serve again if they are willing.
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2007 at 8:20 AM
I nominate Brandon Koll to be placed on the ballot. I think adding some youth to the board would be a nice change of pace.
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2007 at 8:56 AM
Brent Zoubek
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2007 at 12:10 PM
I nominate Bill Velder.
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2007 at 12:13 PM
Lyle Weber is my nominee. Youth and vision are needed sorely.
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AnonymousSeptember 25, 2007 at 7:04 PM
You have to live in the city limits to run for village board.
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AnonymousSeptember 27, 2007 at 9:11 AM
Chuck Rains would be a good candidate who cares about the community.
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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."