Dorchester Times: Random Thoughts: Town Website, DeWitt's Good News, Legislative Race

Monday, October 22, 2018

Random Thoughts: Town Website, DeWitt's Good News, Legislative Race

This feature is called "Random Thoughts."

What you are about to read are the collective random thoughts and observations of the Dorchester Times staff, posted by our own Village Dweller. Some of the musings will be provoking or enlightening; others will have less intellectual depth than the kiddie pool.

In any case, if you read something you agree with, let us know in the comments box. Disagree? Do the same. Have a random thought you want published, send it to dorchester.times@gmail.com.

Enjoy.

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More Needed from Village Website: First, let us say that we appreciate the Village of Dorchester's official website. We check it frequently. But the site needs to be used more often and in a more helpful manner. Why aren't the minutes from village board meetings available online? Why can't users of the website look up the village ordinances like they can state law? Several residents we know would like to be able to pay utilities online from the town's website. We would like to see which properties are currently running afoul of village standards for cleanliness and appearance. (Posting photos of those who have ignored clean-up notices would create more public pressure on negligent property owners.) Bottom line, the village's website needs to be utilized in a smarter, more comprehensive way. This will help all residents to be more informed and more engaged. The Times hopes the new village board, which will be seated in January, makes this a priority.

Good News from DeWitt: The Lincoln newspaper has reported on positive news from DeWitt. Malco Products, a Minnesota-based company that makes specialty tools, just celebrated its grand opening in the former Vise-Grip factory that it purchased in 2016. According to reports, "it appears DeWitt will once again be a manufacturing site for a locking-tool product." For about 10 years, DeWitt's Vise-Grip factory sat empty. U.S. manufacturing is making a comeback thanks to the policies of the current Trump administration, and DeWitt is a beneficiary, it appears.

Puffery from Legislative Race: We've watched the race for Legislature with some amusement. On the ballot this November are incumbent State Senator Laura Ebke and Plymouth-area landowner and farmer Tom Brandt. We aren't endorsing either candidate. Senator Ebke of Crete has disappointed us at times with her votes to repeal the death penalty and water down sentences for criminals. That said, she is a hard-working, approachable and thoughtful public servant. Meanwhile, Tom Brandt has shown he knows one thing: he doesn't like paying property taxes on his farm ground and he wants your help paying them. In debates with Ebke, Brandt has refused to take a stand on controversial issues, such as legalizing illicit drugs. His campaign literature says, "He's one of us." Yet he has received nearly $700,000 in federal farm subsidies over two decades, which of course are just icing on his income cake. None of the Times staff is receiving subsidy checks, certainly not to the tune of $700,000 -- but we'd sure like to. Maybe Brandt can tell us how we can be "one of him."

5 comments:

AnonymousOctober 22, 2018 at 10:54 PM
sounds interesting that your dad never collected any farm payments?
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AnonymousOctober 23, 2018 at 9:48 AM
Dorchester. A jewel in the Plains of Fly-Over country
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West SiderOctober 23, 2018 at 4:13 PM
$700,000 is my partly my tax money too so i guess brandt is already getting payments from me
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AnonymousOctober 23, 2018 at 4:22 PM
Poor Tom Brandt. He can't help that he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. Lay off!
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AnonymousOctober 24, 2018 at 6:42 PM
thats great news bout dewitt
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Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."