Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUNDUP: DHS' Ridge Hoffman Scores 21 In Season Finale

Sunday, February 25, 2018

NEWS ROUNDUP: DHS' Ridge Hoffman Scores 21 In Season Finale

DHS' Hoffman Shines In Season Finale: The Dorchester boy's basketball team has concluded its season. The Longhorn men lost a close sub-district contest last week, falling to Osceola 43-39. Nearly half of DHS' points were scored by sophomore Ridge Hoffman. The young Longhorns squad looked to Hoffman's leadership all season long as Hoffman emerged as a standout throughout the 2017-18 campaign, consistently scoring in double digits. The DHS starter earned a reputation for being adept inside the paint and from well behind the 3-point arc, scoring well over 20 points on several occasions.

DHS Speech Team Has Strong Lineup In 2018: Dorchester's 2018 speech team has grown to seven this year. The team is competing in several locations this season, from Crete to Meridian to Sutton to McCool Juntion. This year's team is comprised of the following students: Daisha Hoffman, Ridge Hoffman, Harmony Shepherd, Timmy Newlin, Kohl Tyser, Breanna Muff and Jaki Acosta. Coaches are Deb Nerud-Vernon and Karen Hrdlicka.

Saline County Sheriff To Step Up Patrol: We've received word that the Saline County Sheriff's Department will have an increased presence in our community. The reason is unclear and we've not reached out to the sheriff's department for comment, but our sources are reliable. Citizens are encouraged to always be part of the solution by being watchful and vigilant, and reporting illegal or suspicious behavior by calling the Saline Sheriff's Department at 402-821-2111. Dorchester is fortunate to have a strong relationship with our county law enforcement officials.

1 comment:

AnonymousFebruary 28, 2018 at 12:54 PM
Congratulations to Daisha Hoffman for taking first place at Conference Speech Tournament! Hoffman competed in Poetry during the season making strides to break finals at each meet. Hoffman earned a superior rating in her first round and 'broke' finals through her second round at the conference meet. Hoffman was awarded first place in her prose delivering a powerful poetry theme on "Hurt". Good luck to the entire speech team as they prepare for district speech competition on March 13 at Southwest High School.
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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."