Dorchester Times: Citizen Of The Year: Bill Velder

Friday, January 15, 2010

Citizen Of The Year: Bill Velder

The Times is proud to name Bill Velder as its "Dorchester Citizen of the Year."

Over the past few weeks, many readers have e-mailed us their nominations for the citizen of the year award. Others submitted their nominations via the comments page to our blog story, originally posted in late December. Every individual nominated was well qualified and deserves proper recognition for their contributions to improve the quality of life in and around Dorchester. Unfortunately, we can give the award to only one person.

We are naming Bill Velder our "Citizen of the Year" based largely on his efforts to coordinate a group of volunteers who came together and made the Nerud Field project a reality in 2009. With much hard work by Velder and many others, the community's football/baseball/softball complex was given an impressive and much-needed makeover, giving c

ommunity members just one more reason to be proud of their hometown. The completion of the project was certainly one of 2009's highlights.

Under Velder's leadership, the Nerud Field Project Committee gathered financial resources and volunteers who constructed the new 24’ by 40’ concession stand. The first-class facility includes a covered dining area, new restrooms, and iron rail fence and entry gate to the f

ootball field. The project started in the autumn of 2008 and was completed in late May of 2009.

We salute Bill on his latest accolade as "Dorchester Citizen of the Year." We also congratulate those who were nominated by fellow residents. Earning honorable mention are: Lyle Weber, Ben Haufle, Brent Zoubek, Scott Pohl, Joyce Karl, Adam Briggs, Rob "Bert" Parks, Carol Olson, Mark Bors, and Ryan Voelker.

In December 2007, our citizen of the year award went to Carol Olson, a tireless volunteer who served as president of the Dorchester Area Community Association and the Dorchester Area Community Foundation. The nomination process was not conducted in 2008.

8 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 15, 2010 at 4:28 PM
Congrats. Mr. Velder, I hope you know what effect you've had on people LITERALLY 1000's of miles away! You have enacted generations of values by your actions.
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AnonymousJanuary 15, 2010 at 9:47 PM
But will Bill wear a nice suit and give a prepared speach like David was going to do? :)

Congrats, Bill.
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JoyceJanuary 16, 2010 at 8:54 AM
Congratulations Bill -- well deserved. Thank you for all you do! Also, thanks to so many that do so much for our community and school....we sometimes get wrapped up in complaining about what's wrong and forget to appreciate what's right.
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AnonymousJanuary 16, 2010 at 10:17 AM
Not to put down any of the other candidates, but congratulations Bill, you shine above a town of good people.
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AnonymousJanuary 16, 2010 at 11:55 PM
Mr. Velder, Congratulations, well deserved!!!
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AnonymousJanuary 18, 2010 at 5:56 PM
I would have gone with Scott Pohl or Brent Zoubek or Lyle Weber but all were good choices to pick from.
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AnonymousJanuary 18, 2010 at 9:23 PM
It sounds like anonymous at 5:56, has a gruge. Thats to bad, maybe you should on nominated yourself.
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AnonymousDecember 15, 2016 at 9:58 AM
It would be nice if we had a football team to use this facility
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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."