Dorchester Times: OUR VIEW: It's Time To Address All Of Dorchester's Neglected Properties

Saturday, July 10, 2021

OUR VIEW: It's Time To Address All Of Dorchester's Neglected Properties

Dorchester is a great little community. Anyone who lives here will tell you that.

Moreover, village leaders are working overtime to ensure our community remains a safe, enjoyable, friendly town that people want to live in. They sometimes don't get the credit they deserve, including on this blog.

Of course, as with any community, there are a few challenges. Over the past couple of decades, Dorchester has neglected enforcement of property codes. Put bluntly, a handful of residents were allowed to let their properties severely deteriorate and/or accumulate junk, which in turns harms property values and quality of life.

But in recent years, Dorchester has witnessed a new resolve to clean neglected and blighted properties, thanks to the hiring of compliance code officers. This is the right thing to do to serve all taxpayers, 90% of whom want to live in an aesthetically appealing town where property values go up.

Fortunately, the village's new code compliance officer -- Craig Bontrager -- has been working with village residents and businesses to start getting all areas of the village spruced up.

In some cases, the residents have junk or out of control vegetation that they are unable to physically or financially handle. In these cases, property owners should contact the village code compliance officer to find out what options they have.

In other cases, some residents simply do not understand the village code and fall out of compliance due to this misunderstanding. If you think you may be out of compliance and want some help or direction in clean up, again, contact the village code compliance officer.

Last month, group of Dorchester United Methodist Church members and the Mennonite Disaster Service helped clean up properties in town. The latter was able to help a local property owner start getting control over his property to bring it back into compliance. This group was arranged by Bontrager.

We think it's unfortunate there are some residents who simply don’t care what their property looks like and are indifferent when it comes to the village code. It is our opinion that these residents should "lawyer up" or consider moving to the countryside, where county officials will deal with you.

According to official communications sent to this blog, Dorchester residents who are out of compliance with community standards will at some point receive a certified letter from the code compliance officer stating the violation and how to remedy it.

Those who choose not to respond will be warned with an administrative sign posted on their property. If there is no response to this warning, then the village may (and should) declare the property a nuisance will decide how to abate the nuisance. (We also think neighbors should be more vocal in their insistence that next-door properties are kept presentable, but that's another topic for another day.)

If at any point during the village's compliance process the property owner contacts the code compliance officer, a plan to achieve compliance can be discussed and set up. In short, Dorchester is giving those with neglected and messy properties plenty of chances to clean up their act. Take advantage of this opportunity.

If you have any questions about code compliance or how you can be involved in improving your community, call the Village of Dorchester (402-946-3201).

It's time to address all of Dorchester's neglected properties.

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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."