Dorchester Times: Dorchester Electric Rates Set To Spike 7%

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Dorchester Electric Rates Set To Spike 7%

Like residents in many other Nebraska communities, Dorchester citizens will soon see a sizable rate increase in their future electric bills. At this month's Village Board meeting, board members voted unanimously to approve a 7 percent increase on electric bills, according to the board minutes.

Other major actions taken by the village board include approving construction of the water treatment lagoon. The project will be completed by Van Kirk Brothers of Sutton. The board also voted unanimously to grant Ben's Iron Grill the authority to offer KENO.

The board voted 5-0 to increase fees for renting the Dorchester Community Building. Renting the community hall will now require a deposit of $250 plus damages.

The next board meeting will be held Jan. 4 at 7 p.m.

7 comments:

AnonymousDecember 26, 2009 at 9:39 AM
I have never ate at bens because I like to play keno while I eat. Let us people in town know when the keno gets started.
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AnonymousDecember 26, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Now that there will be keno offered, and that the community will realize a percentage of the overall proceeds: Did the Village Board give a direction for these proceeds or will they simply go for "community improvements"?

Recently, Broken Bow voted for Keno and directed the funds to offset the costs of a new swimming pool.
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AnonymousDecember 26, 2009 at 10:04 PM
So does it cost $250 to rent the community building or is that the deposit that you will get back if left in the same condition as when rented??

If it costs that much for rent----that is ridiculous. A $250 deposit is ok.

Does anyone know??
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AnonymousDecember 27, 2009 at 1:28 AM
A 7% increase on our electric bills. Are you flippin kidding me??? Do you not gouge us enough on our bill???? absolutely ridiculous.
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AnonymousDecember 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
i agree. i can't believe how much we get charged for the utility bill in this town.
for starters, just for water/sewar it is a standard charge of $48.00
are you kidding me? you think our water is worth that much when how many times has it been "CONTAMINATED" in the last 6 years?
then a standard surcharge of $8.50
whatever on that.
so, so far the bill is up too $56.50
here comes the electricity part which if you have a small house and not many electronics your bill could be under $50.00. then they say you can have a 10% discount only on your electricity which is the cheapest out of the whole bill. so $5.00 off on your whole bill if paid in 5 working days? like its worth it. especially when you do pay your bill before the 5 days are up and they don't even give you the discount. that has happened to me many of times already.
so yeah, what a joke!!! then you want us to put more money in the town. you just want us to hand our payroll checks over to the village board?
i think some people need to go back to the drawing board and rethink of things and put themselves as a citizen of this town, and not a board member and see what they come up with.
our utility bill is the highest bill we pay year round in our household outside of rent.
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AnonymousDecember 27, 2009 at 4:43 PM
Not knowing all the details of the increase, my guess is that they are simply passing on the increase that the village was given by NPPD. The village purchases the community's power for a certain price and then "sells" it to you. If the price from NPPD to its municipal wholesale customers (Dorchester) increases, your household bill will increase as well. (Unless you expect the village to absorb the cost in which they will simply pass along the increase in its overall tax asking., i.e. higher tax rate)

You decide.

As far as water/sewer is concerned, perhaps the village should finally go to a system based on overall usage.
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D.T.December 28, 2009 at 9:40 AM
I'm not happy about the increase but lets put this in perspective. You would have the same costs in Lincoln, maybe more for your LES bill. Then your housing costs (rent, mortgage, property taxes) would be triple. Just saying...
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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."