Dorchester Times: UPDATE: Now Up To 12" Of Snow; Advisory Until 6 PM Saturday

Thursday, January 10, 2019

UPDATE: Now Up To 12" Of Snow; Advisory Until 6 PM Saturday

Intersection of 7th St. and Franklin Ave. at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

UPDATE (Saturday, 10 a.m.): As much as a foot of snow may be accumulating in the Dorchester area by the time the current system has completely passed.

As of 8 a.m. Saturday, about six inches were already in Dorchester as the village tried to clear the streets. Reports are the village's maintainer is inoperable and only one crew member is available, so residents with equipment are helping.

"Please be patient with the city today. ... Everyone is helping where they can," wrote one resident on her social media account.

Accuweather.com, the official weather forecaster of the Dorchester Times, says chance for more than 6 inches is 29 percent, but we are likely already there.

A winter weather advisory is in effect for the Dorchester area until 6 p.m. Saturday.

This is part of a massive snow storm that will blanket a huge portion of the U.S. heartland this weekend.

The U.S. National Weather Service says total snow accumulations up to 12 inches are expected in portions of east central and southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa.

Flashing lights from Dorchester Volunteer Fire and Rescue emergency vehicles were spotted west of Dorchester Friday evening as roads became difficult to travel. There are reports of a semi-truck and trailer accident west of town.

Travel will be difficult especially on untreated roadways. Power outages have been reported due to the heavy nature of the snow. In addition, due to the heavy and wet nature of the snow, shoveling will be unusually difficult.

At 10 a.m., the Journal Star in Lincoln was reporting that areas southeast of Lincoln were hit much harder. Almost a foot of snow was reported near Cook, while 11 inches was reported near Sterling and Palmyra and Nebraska City received 8 inches. Power outages have been reported outside of Lincoln, and a car crash on Interstate 80 near York closed westbound traffic for a short time Saturday morning.

Beatrice has declared a snow emergency, according to KWBE.

For updates on our weather, click here. See the radar here.

Photo: Becky Tyser

Construction site on West 9th St. as it appeared 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

4 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 11, 2019 at 10:50 PM
Please, please for the love of God pave another street in town so the clodhopper in the GM truck with no muffler has another street to drive on and bothers someone else when it snows. Please. Pretty please.
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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."