Dorchester Times: OUR OPINION: An Idea That's Catching Fire

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

OUR OPINION: An Idea That's Catching Fire

It is being reported on the news wires that volunteer firefighters in Blue Springs, Neb. last Saturday burned down two homes in the small town just southeast of Beatrice. The burns help clean up the community and give volunteer firefighters much-needed training.

Talk about hitting two birds with one stone.

Blue Springs Councilman Gene Reedy Jr. told the Beatrice Daily Sun the fires Saturday helped the small southeast Nebraska community remove two longtime eye sores. Reedy owns the property where one home was burned. He says it was up to 100 years old and had been unoccupied for decades. The two houses bring the total number of such controlled fires to three this year.

At least one home in Dorchester's southern section was recently burned for practice by the DVFD, clearing the lot for commercial use. We think this may be the only way to address some of Dorchester's long-time abandoned and dilapidated properties.

As one Times staff member said the day of the practice burn as he watched from the grounds of the county museum: "Let's give our firefighters even more training if they need it."

6 comments:

AnonymousApril 30, 2013 at 10:34 PM
Give it up. Times staffer are nothing but a bunch of trouble makers try something positive
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AnonymousApril 30, 2013 at 11:56 PM
I dont always agree with this blog but i think theyre pretty positive on the whole. When that nasty ghetto on the south side of town was burnt that too was pretty positive. Im sure I heard a few alleluias coming from the onlookers.
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AnonymousMay 1, 2013 at 11:03 AM
I love this site!! Keeps me informed of happenings and causes in Dorchester. Controlled house burns are the ideal way of getting rid of unsightly properties and provide much needed education and practice to the firemen. Why do you, first anonymous, think the staffers are trying to stir up trouble? Are you an owner of a property that needs to be taken care of? I see nothing but good in this article and you are the one being the troublemaker!
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Big MikeMay 1, 2013 at 1:06 PM
Does anyone know what "Commercial" entity is going where Ottman's used to live? That's the house they burned down, right?
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DavidMay 1, 2013 at 3:10 PM
Why hasn't Cynical Richard posted "burn, baby, burn" yet? Hope he's not sick. (Or forgot to pay his Internet bill....)
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AnonymousMay 1, 2013 at 9:57 PM
Big Mike, There is going to be a pole shed put up for corn and soybean seed to be sold and stored.
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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."