Dorchester Times: OUR VIEW: Dorchester's 'To Do' List -- One Year Later

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

OUR VIEW: Dorchester's 'To Do' List -- One Year Later

Over the years, this blog has encouraged Dorchester leaders -- primarily those serving on the Village Board, but also those who run our local organizations, businesses and school -- to sit down and formally develop a long-term plan to enhance our community.

The authors of this blog have encouraged housing plans; main street buildings' plans; business development plans; industry expansion plans; and street improvement plans.

Last year at this time, we published our own plan for Dorchester -- a "to do" list. We are publishing it again. Take a look below; see what progress has been made. (For example, regarding a housing plan, much has happened thanks to the positive steps take by the Dorchester Village Board to annex the Plouzek land north of town and encourage new housing through the use of tax increment financing.)

See what you think and let us know your thoughts and observations. What would you add to Dorchester's "to do" list?

Dorchester's 'To Do' List

Housing

- Fill vacant homes. (We count at least 20 homes that are currently empty, but currently aren't for sale or rent.)

- Rehabilitate run-down houses.

- Develop plan to bring new housing.

Main Street and Business

- Fill all vacant main street and other commercial buildings by 2020.

- Recruit a convenience store to town.

- Work with existing businesses to grow their business and services, while encouraging Dorchester students (like those in FBLA) to develop their own plans to establish a business in town.

Education

- Boost school enrollment by 2020. Promote the quality education that a first-class school like Dorchester provides.

- Increase Dorchester youth and student involvement in activities. Start with the youngest of students by making it part of the culture to participate.

- Increase number of students on the DPS honor roll.

Infrastructure

- Make plans for targeted street paving where it makes sense. (Like finishing 10th Street, for example.)

- Resurface existing paved streets.

- Fix rough and uneven intersections along main street (Washington Ave.).

Community

- Work with current Dorchester students, K-12, to get their input on improving Dorchester.

- Encourage Dorchester's youth (regardless of age) to consider making Dorchester their home someday after graduation.

- Encourage high-quality young families residing elsewhere to consider moving to Dorchester to be part of this exciting time of renewal and involvement.

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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."