Dorchester Times: Random Thoughts: Coronavirus, Trump, Local Jobs, DHS Cheerleaders

Monday, March 2, 2020

Random Thoughts: Coronavirus, Trump, Local Jobs, DHS Cheerleaders

We're starting March with our occasional feature that's known affectionately as "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 have a random thought you want published, send it to dorchester.times@gmail.com.

Enjoy.

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The Deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19): The national news media says we're all gonna die! While COVID-19 looks like one nasty bug, it's not quite the black plague that the media portrays it to be. As of 8 p.m. Monday, out of almost 91,000 cases worldwide, nearly 48,000 individuals had already recovered, according to an official tally. No one wants to get this virus, but if you do, there's a 98.5% chance you'll live to tell about it -- just like the flu. (Keep washing your hands; we're constantly amazed by the people who don't do this after leaving the public toilet!)

Young Man Trump: Remember how the national news media used to blast many conservative political leaders for being too old? Well it's official -- President Donald Trump, 73, is now the youngest man in the 2020 presidential race -- by a wide margin. Biden is 77, Bloomberg 78, and Sanders 78. Where are the media arrows?

Know Any Unretired Person Who Is NOT Working?: Ask them why? The State of Nebraska reports that there are currently 422 job openings in Saline County alone. In the Lincoln metro area, there's nearly 10,000 job openings. Perhaps unemployment assistance should be curtailed.

Bring Back the DHS Cheerleaders: Dorchester School prides itself on offering nearly every opportunity that a larger school does, in addition to a better education. So why has DHS been without a cheerleading squad for nearly a quarter century? We mention this after reading that the Crete High School cheer team just took second place at the state cheer competition. Go! Fight! Win!

1 comment:

AnonymousMarch 8, 2020 at 4:15 PM
I think it got tangled up in a budget issue in teacher salaries.
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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."