Dorchester Times: Nebraska Towns Submitting Infrastructure Priority Lists

Friday, December 19, 2008

Nebraska Towns Submitting Infrastructure Priority Lists

President-elect Barack Obama has proposed spending hundreds of billions of dollars on road, sewer and other infrastructure projects as a way to boost the economy. The national news media is now reporting that Obama would like Congress to pass a five-pronged economic stimulus package in time for him to sign the legislation on Jan. 20, the day he is set to be sworn into office.

Would Dorchester be wise to submit its priority list to the Nebraska Dept. of Roads?

A story in today's Grand Island Independent reports that the City of Grand Island is submitting a $14.7 million wish list for Congress in hopes of garnering money for public infrastructure. "If there's any chance at all, we should take advantage of it and prepare what's being requested," G.I. City Administrator Jeff Pederson said.

Pederson told the Independent that many organizations are

asking for lists, including the League of Nebraska Municipalities, Nebraska Department of Roads, U.S. Conference of Mayors and, for counties, the Nebraska Association of County Officials.

The Nebraska Department of Roads released its own ready-to-go list yesterday that totaled $370 million of state road projects, according to the Omaha World-Herald. That figure doesn't include projects under the control of city and county road departments. The state is seeking information by Dec. 31 from local officials about those projects.

Grand Island list includes paving projects. A few of us here at the Times wonder if the Village of Dorchester should hurry and submit a street paving plan to Nebraska's road department officials before their Dec. 31 deadline? In Bill O'Reilly's words, what say you?

6 comments:

AnonymousDecember 19, 2008 at 11:56 AM
Dorchester has got to start paving streets. Yes I know it may cost a little to pave the streets that need done, But look how much better the town will start looking. That is how you are going to start getting more people. You would start saving money over time. You wouldn't have to pay out money everytime the town employees have to go fix the roads because it rained or snow and messed the road up. Makes sense to me.
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AnonymousDecember 19, 2008 at 12:07 PM
I've said it before, I'll say it again.

I would like to see the amount of money spent on gravel, maintainer labor, equipment and other costs associated with our gravel streets since 1979, the year we abandoned our plans to pave city streets.

There is no doubt that Dorchester has suffered as a result of that decision 30 years ago.
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AnonymousDecember 19, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Go for it!Paved streets would make a perfect public works project. My paternal grandparents moved to Nebraska from Oklahoma because my grandfather got a job with the WPA to build the Wilber swimming pool. The pool was well built and served the town for nearly 50 years. After the Depression and the war, my grandparents remained in Saline County and became farmers. A side benefit was the uniting of an Okie and a Czech who produced a blogger. I've lasted almost as long as the Wilber Pool. (However, a few cracks are beginning to show.)

Good Luck!
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AnonymousDecember 19, 2008 at 4:54 PM
Makes sense to me.

Signed,

-Stephens St. resident
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AnonymousDecember 22, 2008 at 3:24 PM
Wow, that's got to be a record. Four comments in a row without a severe negative overtone.
Anyway what can it hurt to submit a list? The worst they can do is say no. No worse for the wear.
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AnonymousDecember 27, 2008 at 1:12 PM
From Forbes Magazine:

Top 5 Biggest Stimulus Requests for Infrastructure Proejcts

1. Miami, Fla.
Projects: $3.4 billion
Jobs estimate: 55,355

2. Sacramento, Calif.
Projects: $2.8 billion
Jobs estimate: 8,895

3. Philadelphia, Pa.
Projects: $2.6 billion
Jobs estimate: 24,527

4. Los Angeles, Calif.
Projects: $2.4 billion
Jobs estimate: 4,936

5. Albuquerque, N.M.
Projects: $2.3 billion
Jobs estimate: 5,181
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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."