Dorchester Times: $5,000 Grant Will Help Pay For New Park Equipment

Sunday, January 13, 2008

$5,000 Grant Will Help Pay For New Park Equipment

In the coming days, Dorchester is expected to be featured on a list of grant recipients who will benefit from the generosity of the Peter Kiewit Foundation, thanks to the efforts of local leaders. But help is still needed from residents to put the finishing touches on an improved and expanded play equipment area.

According to information received by the Times, several months ago, the Dorchester Area Community Foundation (DACF) wrote a $5,000 grant application on behalf of the Village of Dorchester for additional playground equipment in the city park. The Village Board agreed to match any Kiewit money awarded up to $5,000, which is the amount approved by the Kiewit Foundation board -- making a total of $10,000 available for the new park equipment.

The two photos accompanying this story show the playground pieces that have been ordered. Photos are courtesy of DACF president Carol Olson.

Olson said DACF included the cost of gravel in the grant proposal, but that the organization is still in need of retainers to keep the gravel confined in the areas. Olson noted that railroad ties were used around two of the existing areas and more permanent playground timbers around the third.

Community leaders had planned to replace the existing railroad ties with timbers, but the rising cost of the material delayed the action. Olson said the goal now is to outline both the new equipment area and two of the existing areas with timbers.

Olson said that Dorchester area residents should get in touch with her if they have know of anyone selling used playground timbers. "In the meantime," she said "we will need more railroad ties if anyone has access to them."

7 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 14, 2008 at 1:57 PM
I see that the cost of gravel is included within the grant, however there is a grant program ran through the NDEQ that would help pay for the use of crumb rubber instead of the rock. Perhaps the Kiewit grant could be shifted to pay for the retainers and the NDEQ grant can pay for the fill? The application deadline is February 1st, which doesn't give a lot of time, but it is a fairly simple grant application to fill out.

NDEQ Application PDF
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AnonymousJanuary 15, 2008 at 11:42 AM
To the town board members who are reading this, thank you for your willingness to invest in the park. Would you be willing to vote on implementing a town curfew? I think if kids under 18 were required to be off the streets by 10:30 pm, that would greatly reduce vandalism, especially in the summer.
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AnonymousJanuary 15, 2008 at 3:54 PM
I would have to agree with Bob. Kids of all ages are left to roam around town (most of them with little to no respect of others)and after a certain time of night there is only trouble to be found. There is no reason parents can't help be responsable for their kids and keep them at home were they are not going to trash our communtiy. We should not all have to suffer a town that is vanelized and left looking trashy because they are "out looking for something to do".
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AnonymousJanuary 15, 2008 at 6:15 PM
bob.....I believe we DO have a curfew on the books....who is around to enforce it??
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AnonymousJanuary 15, 2008 at 11:28 PM
I'll volunteer to inforce the curfews....... nothing a high powered pelet gun can't handle ..........
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AnonymousJanuary 16, 2008 at 5:55 AM
Cynical Richard I think you need mental health. Glad you are not my parent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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AnonymousJanuary 16, 2008 at 10:05 AM
my kids graduated more than 25 years ago............ they turned out fine ........ on the honor roll almost every quarter........ we need to start sending parents fines if they cant control their kids ....... parenting ain't rocket science ....... I did it
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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."