Dorchester Times: News Roundup: New Code Compliance Officer; Car Port Permits Denied

Monday, July 11, 2016

News Roundup: New Code Compliance Officer; Car Port Permits Denied

Village Board Hires New Property Code Officer: It has been brought to our attention that a new enforcer has been hired to ensure that Dorchester residents are keeping their property up to community standards. We confirmed this when we obtained the minutes from the Dorchester Village Board's May 2016 meeting. Local resident Penny Keller was approved for hire by the board, which confirmed her as the village's new nuisance abatement and code compliance officer. The minutes confirm that Keller has been hired as an independent contractor, not a village employee. This hire will help ensure that the clean-up notices and enforcement originally initiated by SENDD a few years ago continues. Village leaders are to be commended for keeping the pressure on negligent property owners, as Keller cares deeply about Dorchester and its future.

Car Ports In Dorchester: Let's face it -- car ports are popping up more often nowadays and they typically look rather shabby (looking like this.) While car ports might be a better alternative than someone parking on their front lawn (c'mon -- show some pride), it appears the Dorchester Planning Commission is cracking down more often on their installation. There are rules and regulations for car ports in Dorchester. In recent months, permits for car ports have been denied and corrective actions have been ordered for existing car ports, including one right on main street.

Why Doesn't The Village Post Meeting Minutes Online?: Since the Village of Dorchester now has an official website, wouldn't it be nice if village board meeting minutes were posted online? The taxpayers deserve that much. Heck, if residents knew which topics were being discussed on a monthly basis, there might even be more civic engagement and attendance at board meetings. The Dorchester Board of Education posts their meeting minutes online -- surely the Dorchester Board of Trustees can do the same.

In Case You Missed It: A couple weeks ago, we shared with our Facebook followers a posting by the Crete Police Department showing still shots of individuals using stolen credit card numbers at the Crete Wal-Mart and surrounding retail stores. Good news -- those suspects have been nabbed. To them, we say: Adios! For some, it seems that working a legitimate, honorable job is just too difficult these days. From shootings in Lincoln, to gangbangers in Omaha, to dope dealers, to crime rings like this one, there are lots of bad people out there. We hope our Republican turned so-called Libertarian Senator Laura Ebke and her fellow state lawmakers will finally see the wisdom of providing for more law enforcement and additional corrections facilities instead of undoing Nebraska's strict criminal sentencing standards.

4 comments:

AnonymousJuly 12, 2016 at 7:53 AM
someone doesn't know what a car port is, showing a picture of a rag tent
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AnonymousJuly 12, 2016 at 7:58 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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AnonymousJuly 21, 2016 at 8:16 AM
Have to agree with #1, and #3 must have told the truth about something, no one was supposed to know.
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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."