Dorchester Times: Vandals Strike New Park Shelter

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Vandals Strike New Park Shelter

The Times is saddened to report that one of the handicap picnic tables at the Dorchester City Park has been damaged by a group of vandals. According to sources, it will cost more then $500 to repair or replace.

One reader told the Times staff, "I'm curious if the person(s) that did the damage are readers of the Times and could tell the rest of us why they would do such damage." We are wondering the same.

Dorchester Area Community Foundation members and other community volunteers -- including the DHS wrestling team -- invested many hours to erect and finish the park shelter a few years ago. Scores of others donated money to make the new shelter a reality. It is a nice addition to the park and our town. We cannot understand why anyone -- regardless of their low IQ or lack of parental supervision -- would want to ruin a park shelter and source of town pride.

We urge young people in town to start help us safeguard our public resources, like the city park. Also, the Times hopes that anyone with information on this act of vandalism will report it to the Saline County Sheriff's Department at (402) 821-2111. Or send an e-mail with details and names to amoore@sclec-ne.org.

5 comments:

cynical richardMay 2, 2010 at 12:56 AM
.............this is why god made firearms ............................
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AnonymousMay 3, 2010 at 11:42 AM
It's those darn kids who don't care about the town and are already losers.. So they want to make it worse for everbody else because they arn't happy with what they have and want to take it out on everyone else..
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AnonymousMay 5, 2010 at 7:59 AM
Don't take this the wrong way because I think it is bad that someone did it but what is there for kids to go in this town. There is two bars and that is it at night. My guess is who ever did this is under the age of 17. After the age of 17 people figure out that there are things that they can do in other towns.
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AnonymousMay 7, 2010 at 9:16 AM
I grew up in a small town where there wasn't much for kids to do, but we certainly didn't destroy property. We played card games, went to someone's house & watched movies, went to neighboring towns to bowl & rode our bikes around town, it was just fun socializing with our friends.
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AnonymousMay 8, 2010 at 8:38 PM
Sorry in the late 70's the park got new playground equiptment.
It was all destroyed within 2-3 yrs by vandals. Shameful then, shameful now, but still nothing new. We had a teen center at the time to hang out in. Friend has to lock their school playground because of vandals.It happens. The kids that did it in the late 70's are productive humans now so...
we will hope they grow up soon.
I thought we had cameras set up at the park.
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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."