Dorchester Times: List Of Properties Facing Nov. 4 Cleanup Deadline

Sunday, October 28, 2012

List Of Properties Facing Nov. 4 Cleanup Deadline

Our Oct. 18 story on how to handle negligent property owners created quite an stir, due mostly to the accompanying pictures of homes whose owners have received cleanup notices from the Dorchester Village Board.

We removed the photos within 24 hours of the story's posting based on a collective decision by the Times staff. But we believe this issue is critical to the future of Dorchester and it deserves our readers' attention. Also, we strongly support the actions of the Village Board and believe the actions are serving as a model for other smaller communities to follow.

Next week will be an important one in the process of Dorchester's property cleanup. The Village Board voted Oct. 1 to declare several properties in town as nuisances, giving owners a month to improve their properties to meet the community standards. The deadline for this action is Nov. 4.

Next Monday, Nov. 5, the board will meet again and determine what actions to take to address those properties that have not been cleaned up adequately.

Because we believe the entire community should be involved in this process -- and that the town's quality of life is at stake -- we have decided to publish the list of properties that have received a cleanup notice and are required to meet the Nov. 4 deadline. (Why are we doing this? See our June 2007 editorial, "Want Cleaner Neighbors? Try Peer Pressure.")

Please note that this information is already public and was included in the Village Board minutes.

PROPERTIES DECLARED PUBLIC NUISANCES BY THE VILLAGE BOARD:

1012 Jefferson

1008 Jefferson

1002 Jefferson

1009 Franklin

306 West 10th

1009 Jefferson

1009 Stephens

604 West 9th

913 Stephens

912 Stephens

208 West 9th

803 Washington

813 Franklin

809 Jefferson

600 West 9th

605 West 9th

703 Stephens - Lot 5

712 Stephens

713 Jefferson

705 Washington N 1/2

10 comments:

AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 9:19 AM
This is really great, we are seeing a improvement already.
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AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 12:33 PM
My wife and me are going to drive around tonight and see if these properties are cleaned up or not
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AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 7:01 PM
You guys just keep raking the muck - as if these people didn't know they got a notice. They are tax payers too and dint diserve to be harassed.
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AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 7:48 PM
Clean up your mess and you won't get harassed, it's not like the mess is doing you any good anyway .
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AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 8:28 PM
If making someone cleaning up there place is called harassement. Then it shouldnt been that way and they wouldn't of gotten a letter, pride in home and town, thats all its about. Whats wrong with having a clean up town, makes dorchester look nicer, if I do say so myself.
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AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 9:13 PM
Jesus....enough already! These people have gotten their notice, they are probably attempting to straighten things out, they have until Nov. 4th....give them a break. If they don't get it straightened up by the 4th, then take it to the next level, but lay off, for the love of God!
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AnonymousOctober 29, 2012 at 10:40 PM
Is Chris Farley back?
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AnonymousOctober 30, 2012 at 12:19 PM
a tempest in a teapot. good god! get a life!
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AnonymousOctober 30, 2012 at 3:02 PM
I think the prime minister of Great Britain once called the American colonists' uprising over the tea tax a "tempest in a tea pot" too.

I think what's taking place in Dorchester as a pretty big deal.
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AnonymousNovember 17, 2012 at 9:15 PM
Where are these addresses listed? Tucked into the inner Village limits? Why not site property visible from the main highway (33 & Washington?????). Village wants people to visit/move here yet not site property visible from the main inner section into town????
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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."