Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUNDUP: Three New DPS Board Members Set To Begin Terms

Monday, December 26, 2016

NEWS ROUNDUP: Three New DPS Board Members Set To Begin Terms

Here's what is trending in Dorchester right now:

New School Board Members Will Begin Duties In January: At the Dorchester Board of Education Meeting held earlier this month, longtime DPS Board members were honored by Superintendent Daryl Schrunk. Retiring school board members are Brad Havlat (20 years of service); Mark Bors (14 years of service); and Lindsey Zoubek (8 years of service). Newly elected board members -- Neal Pavlish, Mike Hatfield and Kelli Schweitzer -- will begin their duties in January. The Board's next meeting will be Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. at the DPS School Library. It is open to all school district patrons.

Opponents Call DHS Administrators Regarding Longhorn Athletes: It is reported that following a December basketball game, officials from the Bruning-Davenport-Shickley School called to commend DHS girls' basketball players for their attitudes, sportsmanship and community service. "From their smiles and greetings," to their efforts to pick up after the game, BDS told DHS administrators that they were impressed by the character of DHS' girls.

DHS To Buy New Wrestling "Under Mat": (Correction: A reader clarified an earlier version of this summary.) Although there are only two DHS wrestlers this season, the DPS School Board recently voted 6-0 to approve the purchase of a new mat to place under the school's wrestling mats. The cost will be shared 50/50 with the youth wrestling programs, according to DPS Board minutes.

Overheard In City Slickers: Last week, we overheard a local resident talking about the Dorchester School's advertisement in The Crete News in an effort to get more option-enrollment students. This individual suggested that instead of spending advertising money, why not offer current DPS educators a $200/month stipend to live in Dorchester -- especially those with children? We've heard worse ideas.

3 comments:

AnonymousDecember 26, 2016 at 10:00 AM
The board did not approve the purchase of a new wrestling mat. The board approved the purchase of a mat that goes between the concrete floor and the wrestling mat that allows for air to flow through. This purchase was made to prolong the use of the current mats. The cost is NOT near the cost of a wrestling mat and the cost is being split with the youth wrestling club.

Offering a stipend to live in Dorchester? Currently there are only 2 teachers with children that don't live in Dorchester. It's an idea... but where are they going to live? Talk to your town board.
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AnonymousDecember 26, 2016 at 11:03 PM
My husband and I counted more than 25 vacant homes in Dorchester just during our drive around town looking at Christmas lights. That's a whopping number in a town our size! Why not do what some larger towns are doing and put a vacancy tax on owners of empty homes to encourage owners to rent or sell their properties? Some communities are applying the vacancy tax on homes that have been empty/not on the market for more than a year in the range of 3% to 5% of the assessed value of each home. Couldn't afford to let them sit if that were imposed, but lots of people can afford a few hundred bucks in property taxes for cheap storage. Very unfair to those who live here or want to live here. Not my idea of community.
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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."