Dorchester Times: Dorchester Sees 375% Gain In Weekend Traffic Since July

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Dorchester Sees 375% Gain In Weekend Traffic Since July

While Dorchester village officials probably won't hear the public grumbling about traffic jams anytime too soon, they may want to take notice of the dramatic spike of weekend traffic on Main Street from just a few weeks ago.

It's also worth recognizing the sizable increase in economic activity produced by the individuals who arrive in those additional vehicles.

According to a study by the Times, weekend traffic on Dorchester's three-block business district has surged 375% on Friday and Saturday nights compared to just six years ago.

The Times compared two random traffic counts taken in late June and late July of this year, and two counts on the weekends since Big T's BBQ Pit Stop opened earlier this month. The tallies were taken between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday or Saturday evenings, when Dorchester's Main Street (Washington Ave.) tends to be its busiest.

The traffic count has increased by 1100% on Sunday evenings, although that is not significant as it sounds since there were no businesses open on Sunday evenings until the opening of Big T's BBQ Pit Stop.

The increase in traffic can obviously be attributed to the success of the new BBQ restaurant and the continued success of City Slickers.

The extra vehicles mean big dollars for Dorchester, even using conservative estimates.

We estimate that each vehicle on Dorchester's Main Street on a Friday or Saturday evening equals at least $30 spent in town on food, drinks, KENO, donations, gasoline or something else.

Using that figure, just additional 20 vehicles appearing in the business district on weekend nights would translate into an extra $62,400 spent in Dorchester throughout the course of a year.

Have you supported Dorchester's restaurants lately? Have you encouraged your family and friends to do so, as well?

2 comments:

AnonymousAugust 27, 2016 at 4:17 PM
We have had BBQ at The Shed in Mississippi, Central BBQ in Memphis Tennessee, and KC Masterpiece in Kansas City. We rate Big T's with the best. Congratulations Tim on a job well done.
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AnonymousAugust 27, 2016 at 4:19 PM
We have enjoyed BBQ from The Shed in Mississippi, Central BBQ in Memphis TN, KC Masterpiece in Kansas City and rate Big T's BBQ as one of the best. Thank you and Congratulations Tim on a job well done

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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."