Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUNDUP: $9,000 In Delinquent Property Taxes In Dorchester Precinct

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

NEWS ROUNDUP: $9,000 In Delinquent Property Taxes In Dorchester Precinct

Nearly $9,000 In Delinquent Property Taxes In Dorchester Precinct: No one likes paying property taxes, which are too high in Nebraska. But property taxes are what fund our schools, cities and counties. When property owners are delinquent on their property tax payments, it creates an added burden for all of us. According to the latest report from the Saline County treasurer's office, there are nearly $9,000 in delinquent property tax bills in the Dorchester precinct alone. The owners of two Dorchester homes, one vacant lot, several main street commercial buildings, and two parcels of agricultural land had not paid their property taxes, according to the treasurer's list. (We were unable to determine if the owners have made the payments since the list was published earlier this year, or if an investor has paid the taxes for the owners in hopes of getting first chance to own the property him/herself.) See the entire 2017 Saline County delinquent property tax list here. (For property search and mapping, click here.)

Dorchester Preschool Hours Announced: As we reported a while ago, a Dorchester Public Schools-administered preschool is coming to town. Mrs. Alison Nickel was hired as DPS' Preschool Teacher for the school year beginning August 2017. School officials say she believes in creating a "caring, warm environment, where the children are exposed to play, social skills, and academic learning." Now we know the preschool's hours as announced on the DPS website. The 2017-2018 Dorchester Preschool hours are: AM Class (3 year-olds) will be 8:10 a.m. until 11:25 a.m. [Mondays-Thursdays]; and PM Class (4 year-olds) will be 12:15 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. [Mondays-Thursdays]. The first day for preschool is Monday, August 21. Questions? Call 402-946-2781.

Friend Hog Farmer Elected To Lead National Pork Group: Terry O’Neel, a pork producer from Friend, was elected as president of the National Pork Board at the organization’s June board meeting in Des Moines. O’Neel and his wife Diane own and operate O’Neel Farms, a farrow-to-finish pig farm that markets 12,000 pigs annually. In addition to pigs, O’Neel Farms also grows corn and soybeans on 700 acres. See more here.

2 comments:

AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 2:27 PM
To find if someone has paid property taxes (real or personal) go to the website, under treasurer's information, enter the parcel ID (number starts with 76) and it will show when the last payment was made. It will not, however, tell you who paid the taxes. Hope this helps.
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AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 4:52 PM
Property taxes, which are imposed by local government, are too high in Nebraska. I agree. But so are Nebraska's income taxes which are killing my family. I could have that extra 7% income every year if I lived in South Dakota or Wyoming.
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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."