Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: Larry Hromek Wins Husker Tickets

Sunday, October 11, 2009

NEWS BRIEFS: Larry Hromek Wins Husker Tickets

Larry Hromek Wins Husker Football Tickets: State Senator Russ Karpisek, who represents Dorchester and District 32 in the Unicameral, recently donated two Nebraska-Texas Tech football tickets to the community of Dorchester to help pay for the improvements being made to Nerud Field's athletic facilities, according to a letter we received from Joyce Karl. To raise the needed funds, the Husker tickets were the top prize in a raffle held last Friday at the DHS football game versus Freeman. One of our readers reports that Dorchester resident Larry Hromak was the winner of the Husker tickets. The raffle raised more than $500 in improvement funds, we are told.

Housing Funds Available For Small Neb. Communities: DHS graduate Mike Feeken, now an economic development specialist in St. Paul, Neb., reports to us that the Neb. Dept. of Econ. Development has extended the deadline for its community affordable housing development grant. Applications will be due no later than November 13, 2009 – via fax or email. The Nebraska Affordable Housing Program (NAHP) is intended to 1.) provide funds to eligible recipients for acquisition, rehabilitation, construction, and production of affordable housing to increase the supply of decent, safe, and sanitary housing for low-to-moderate income Nebraskans; 2.) promote and advance the goals of the 2010-2014 Nebraska Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development; and 3.) provide a mechanism to leverage private investment in the development of affordable housing. For more information, call (402) 471-6587 or email: lindsay.schmuecker@nebraska.gov

$92,000 Business Grant Available For Saline County: Have a business idea but don't know how to raise the capital to fund it? Reader "Newshound" reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development announced it has awarded nearly $399,000 to four Nebraska nonprofits to support business development and entrepreneurship. One of those is grant for $92,000 for Nebraska Venture Capital Forum to conduct new venture competitions in York, Red Willow, Nemaha and Saline counties. In these competitions, entrepreneurs submit business plans to a panel of judges. The winner receives a $25,000 cash investment and $10,000 worth of professional services, if the business locates in the respective economic regions. See more by clicking here.

1 comment:

AnonymousOctober 14, 2009 at 9:14 AM
GO MOE!!!!
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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."