Dorchester Times: At Least Three Challengers File For School Board

Thursday, February 28, 2008

At Least Three Challengers File For School Board

Monday, March 3 marks the deadline for challengers who want to run for the Dorchester School Board. (Residents seeking a seat on the Village Board still have until July 15 to file their paperwork.)

Three school board seats are up for grabs this year. And with at least five candidates to choose from, there will be a contest at the ballot box.

According to the Saline County Clerk/Election Commissioner's office, several area residents have filed as challengers for the District 44 School Board.

Incumbents board members Ron Kahle and Bill Boller have both filed for re-election, according to the Saline County Clerk's office. Incumbent Lori Pracheil has not filed and will not seek re-election since the filing deadline was Feb. 15 for incumbents.

A spokesperson for the county clerk's office told the Times that the following challengers had also filed as of 4:30 p.m. on February 28:

Kelli Burkey
Lisa Wells
Mikki Hoffman

Others wishing to run for the school board have until 5 p.m. Monday to file their paperwork with the Saline County Clerk in Wilber.

3 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 29, 2008 at 8:42 AM
I would love to see some younger people on our village board. A couple of people that are not afraid to make changes. Traveling many of our streets, I cannot even find a place to drive to avoid "holes" -- will the village board pay to have the front end of my car alligned? The water standing in the intersections is horrible. How can people even cross? Also, the refusal of the village board to combine the school library and the community library was a great opportunity lost for our town. We, as citizens, need to band together and make our voices heard. I know that being on the village board is a thankless job but we need some people that care about the future of Dorchester.
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AnonymousFebruary 29, 2008 at 12:57 PM
How many people have filed for the village board? Any names? Does anyone at the Dorchester Times know that information?
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Village DwellerFebruary 29, 2008 at 2:05 PM
The Times will run a story on the village board race closer to the filing deadline, which is July 15.

For those interested, the following village board members have terms ending in 2008. It is not yet known if these public servants will seek re-election:

* Alan Slepicka
* Dean Pracheil
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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."