Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: DHS Journalists Compete; Weber And Behrens Named Academic All-Staters

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

NEWS BRIEFS: DHS Journalists Compete; Weber And Behrens Named Academic All-Staters

DHS Journalists Compete Against Class A Schools: Continuing its long run of excellence in journalism, Dorchester High School recently sent some of its students to compete in the Journalism Education Association Winter High School Journalism Competition. Around two dozen schools competed in the even. Most of the schools were from Omaha or other Class A schools, while Dorchester was the smallest school represented. Brittney Zoubek received an "excellent" for her Yearbook Theme Copy Writing; Zoe McKnight received an honorable mention for in the category of Sports/Action Photography; Makenna Bird received an honorable mention for Yearbook Layout and an honorable mention for Yearbook Sports Feature; Marivelle Magana received an honorable mention for Yearbook Theme Copy Writing, and the team of Brittany Knorr, Marivelle Magana, and Brittney Zoubek received an honorable mention for Yearbook Theme Development. These Longhorns are advised by Mrs. Sandy Severance.

Dorchester Girls Place 4th At Turkey Creek Track And Field: The DHS girls took fourth place yesterday at the Turkey Creek Track And Field Invitational in Friend, outscoring both Exeter-Milligan and the Bulldogs. The Lady Longhorns placed first in the triple jump, shot put and discus events. Word has it that the future for Dorchester's female athletics is bright, as a crop of talented junior high athletes are also making their presence known.

DHS Girls Named Academic All-Staters: Dorchester's Jacee Weber and Avery Behrens excelled on the court and in the classroom this year. As a result, the Lincoln Journal Star has named the duo to its Class D2 Academic All-State Honorable Mention rolls for girls basketball. Congrats to Jacee and Avery.

The Fiscal Insanity Of Gravel Streets: The minutes from the Dorchester Village Board's March meeting report that board members recently heard from an Olsson Associates representative, who made recommendations for street improvements. Those recommendations dealt with intersections, as well as resurfacing existing paved streets, we have learned, but they were rejected "due to lack of available funds." Meanwhile, the Village is currently accepting bids for delivery and spread of 480 tons of gravel -- for the latest round of gravel coating on those unpaved streets. Consider that it will likely cost the Village at least $30 a ton (a conservative estimate) to bring the gravel and drop it on the streets. This will cost around $15,000, plus the cost of labor for its employees to spread and maintain. This gets to be an expensive annual habit and is proof that over the decades, gravel streets are quite expensive, too. We say, "Stop the madness," and instead put some momentum into long-term street planning.

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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."