Dorchester Times: News Briefs: Farmers' Co-op Takeover Will Take Place Sept. 1

Friday, August 8, 2008

News Briefs: Farmers' Co-op Takeover Will Take Place Sept. 1

Farmers' Co-0p Will Take Over Countryside Co-op: Earlier this week, the Lincoln Journal Star reported that some Nebraska Tire stores have been closed as their owner, Countryside Cooperative of Firth prepares to be taken over Sept. 1 by Dorchester's Farmers Cooperative. Interim CEO Terry Samuelson said Countryside members voted 92% on July 24 for the co-op to be taken over by Dorchester, a larger cooperative. Meanwhile, Countryside has been downsizing its Nebraska Tire operation. The Nebraska Tire stores remaining are in Firth, Nebraska City, York and Fremont. The rationale behind the merger, Samuelson said, was primarily to be able to address capital needs for agriculture for the future. “Very fine companies are being challenged,” Samuelson said. “When we had corn at $6, approaching $7, it takes three time the amount of capital to do the same amount of business as it did three years ago.” Countryside also owns elevators, fuel and propane stations, feed stores, ammonia plants and other operations at Firth, Pickrell, Princeton, Diller, Cortland, Sterling, Syracuse, Pawnee City, Hallam, Filley and Crete, according to its Web site. Farmers Cooperative of Dorchester currently has operations in 35 other communities in southeast Nebraska and Kansas.

DHS Alum Nohavec Named As Business Leader: 1989 DHS alumus Kristi Nohavec, now of Lincoln, has been honored with the Midlands Business Journal '40 under 40' award. Nohavec is an architect and associate principal at Clark Enersen Partners, Inc. in Lincoln. Recently, Nohavec designed the new shelter in the Dorchester City Park.

Baby Holtmeier Newest Member of Dorchester Area Community: Penny (Olson) and Mike Holtmeier of Dorchester are the proud parents of a new baby boy, born Aug. 7 at Saint Elizabeth. Our congratulations to the happy family.

8 comments:

AnonymousAugust 8, 2008 at 5:02 PM
Congratulations Kristi! This comes from the proud godmother of an architecture major who is about to enter the University of Virginia. By the way, you and my brother graduated at the same time.
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AnonymousAugust 8, 2008 at 8:27 PM
Corn and beans are going to crash, just like oil prices............. mark my words ............... even ethanol wont save crop prices ........ it will just make feeding cattle tough for small guys like me ...............
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sm1978August 20, 2008 at 9:22 PM
For the record it is not Dorchester Farmers Coop, it is Farmers Cooperative.
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Village DwellerAugust 21, 2008 at 9:26 AM
For the record, we referred to the co-op as "Dorchester's Farmers Cooperative."

Like Omaha's First National Tower. Or Lincoln's Antelope Park. Or Wilber's Karpisek Meats.

The record stands as is. Nonetheless, we apreciate the editing effort.
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AnonymousAugust 21, 2008 at 4:25 PM
Maybe poster sm1978 is referring to the headline. The response by the Village Dweller was surprising as it appeared unprofessional and immature.
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AnonymousAugust 21, 2008 at 9:26 PM
When Plymouth and Dorchester mergerd the name was changed to Farmers Cooperative.
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AnonymousAugust 21, 2008 at 11:03 PM
Scribe --- The people running this site get criticized almost every day. I know because I read it. For the most part they shut up and take it, so I don't blame them for shooting back once and a while. I'll bet you are lacking a little professionalism and maturity yourself since you are so quick to criticize and over react. Maybe the computer is your only friend?
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Village DwellerAugust 21, 2008 at 11:33 PM
All:

No unprofessionalism or "shooting back" was intended.

We apologize if our comment was taken the wrong way. (This is another reason we have reduced our activity in the commentary section.)
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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."