OUR TAKE: County Committee Shows No Love For Dorchester

This week, the Saline County Visitors Committee reviewed applications for two grant funds administered by the group. The funds -- one for promotion and marketing, and the other for attraction improvements -- are targeted toward increasing tourism in the county. Grant monies are generated by the lodging tax collected in the county.

Ten applications submitted for promotion and marketing funds were approved. A total of $4,125 was awarded to encourage tourism from outside of the area.

Here is a list of who received money for marketing and promotion efforts:

• Saline County Agricultural Society, $500 for advertising various Saline County Fair activities; 
• Western Community Club, $500 toward promotion of the annual Old Settlers’ Picnic;
• Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, $1,000 toward brochures and other advertising for the 52nd annual Czech Festival;
• Crete T.J. Sokols (four events), $400 toward marketing the Terror of 12th Street event, $400 for marketing the Savin’ Sokol Halloween Festival, $400 for promoting the Savin’ Sokol 5K Run event, and $75 for posters to promote a boxing event;
• Tobias Community Club, $150 to advertise the Tobias Fun Fair;
• Friend Chamber of Commerce, $200 to promote the Tri-Community Garage Sale event; 
• Swanton Community Club, $500 toward marketing the Garage Sale Trail event involving five communities.

Then, the committee OK'd $4,250 in funding for nine improvement proposals.  They are:

• Crete Heritage Society, $500 toward a new heating and cooling system in the Bickle House; 
• Crete T.J. Sokols, $500 for tuck pointing their building; 
• Saline County Historical Society, $250 toward the purchase of an exhibit case; 
• Warren Opera House in Friend, $500 toward the purchase of reusable holiday decorations; 
• Tobias Community Club, $500 to purchase a welcome sign at the Highway 74 entrance to town; 
• City of Wilber, $500 toward the purchase of Czech language street signs; 
• Wilber Chamber of Commerce, $500 toward expenses of downtown mural replacement; 
• Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, $500 toward replacing windows and the front door of historic Hotel Wilber; and
• American Legion Louis Milan Post 101, Wilber, $500 toward the improvement of camping sites in Legion Park with crushed rock.

Hmmmmm. Now ask yourself: Who's not getting a piece of the pie?

Every Saline County community but Dorchester and DeWitt received funding for their events, even Swanton for promotion of garage sales. 

But Dorchester -- home to the county's biggest Independence Day fireworks show and the county museum -- didn't get a dime.  The historical society did receive $250 for a new display case, but $250 out of nearly $4400 leaves us scratching our heads.

Like Tobias, our community has new welcome signs, but did we get any help from the Visitors Commission? Not to our knowledge.

What happened here? Was Dorchester completely ignored due to lack of representation on the Visitors Bureau Board? Most likely.

Something has to change.  Either Dorchester needs some representation on this committee, or we need to ensure that more applications are submitted for our worthwhile tourism-related efforts and sites.

Current members of the Saline County Visitors Committee are Lorine Mares and Sheryl Kastanek, Wilber; Jim Rischling, Western; and Teri Shestak, Janet Jeffries, Deb Polacek, and Blaine Spanjer of Crete. 

If you'd like to become more involved with the Visitors Committee or learn more about the grant applications, call Deb Polacek, Crete Chamber of Commerce 402-826-2136, or Lorine Mares at 402-821-2304.