Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Coffee With Superintendent Schrunk, March 27

Sunday, March 25, 2018

NEWS ROUND-UP: Coffee With Superintendent Schrunk, March 27

Tuesday Morning Coffee Event With DPS Superintendent: This Tuesday, March 27, at 7 a.m. at City Slickers restaurant in downtown Dorchester, Dorchester Public Schools Superintendent Daryl Schrunk will host a "Coffee with the Superintendent" event for parents and other district patrons. He will provide an update on school matters, as well as take questions. The Times staff is very impressed with this initiative -- the first of its kind in our area.

DHS Journalism Program Continues To Accumulate Honors: Congratulations to the Dorchester High School journalism program. We are told that over 30 schools competed in this year's Journalism Education Association contest, and that most of the schools were from Class A institutions. Makenna Bird received an "excellent" in Yearbook Theme Copy Writing and honorable mentions in Yearbook Feature Writing and Yearbook Sports Feature Writing. Zoe McKnight received honorable mention in News/Feature Photography. Harmony Shepherd received honorable mentions in Yearbook Theme Copy Writing and Photo/Artistic Illustration. Breanna Muff received an "excellent" in News/Feature Photography. The entire Dorchester yearbook staff from 2016-17 received honorable mention for Yearbook Theme Development. The journalism students are advised by Mrs. Sandy Severance.

Dorchester Kindergarten Registration Is This Tuesday, March 27: Do you know a child who will be going to Dorchester Public School's Kindergarten next year? Dorchester's Kindergarten registration for school year 2018-19 will be Tuesday, March 27, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Then, on Thursday (March 29), Kindergarten Round-Up will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. For more information, call Mrs. Carroll at 402-946-2781.

Rural Counties Making Comeback: We were sent a national news story about some long-declining small towns and farming and manufacturing counties across the country that are now adding people. It seems that population growth in many large cities is starting to cool down, due to the expense of living in urban America and the declining quality of life. Heavily agricultural areas "likely still have fewer jobs, but may be attractive to people looking for low-cost areas to retire or cut costs," said Doug Farquhar, program director for rural development at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The same source who e-mailed this story also shared a chart that shows Saline County is one of just 15 Nebraska counties that has grown over the last 17 years. This is good news for Dorchester, which has so much potential. Now is the time for town leaders, organizations and even students to compile a long-term plan for housing, education, streets, businesses and overall quality of life.

1 comment:

Don HoffmanMarch 25, 2018 at 11:02 AM
Our school and the mission it has to prepare our children for the rich lives they are capable of achieving, is one of the most important facets of the "jewel" we call Dorchester. If you are able to attend, please try to do so. I know how much that educators need the input from their community so they can continue to enrich our children's lives. Thank you to the Times for letting us know about this.
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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."