Dorchester Times: NEWS ROUND-UP: Farmers Co-op Expanding Dorchester Headquarters (Again)

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

NEWS ROUND-UP: Farmers Co-op Expanding Dorchester Headquarters (Again)

Farmers Cooperative Expands Dorchester Offices (Again): In 2014, Dorchester-based Farmers Cooperative -- one of Nebraska's (and the nation's) largest agribusinesses -- conducted a massive expansion of its office headquarters. Now the co-op's office footprint is expanding once again, this time growing to the north -- occupying the considerable space at 607 Franklin Ave. where a house stood up until a few years ago. The expansion -- along with the added silos and street paving in recent years -- shows the co-op's commitment to Dorchester, while adding to the village's property tax base.

Saline County a Leader in COVID-19 Vax Rate: At last check, 88% of our area residents who are 65 and older have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. According to Public Health Solutions -- the public health office that serves Saline, Fillmore, Thayer, Jefferson and Gage counties -- only Lancaster and Douglas counties boast a higher vaccination rate. Meanwhile, our area's vaccination rates are 61% for those ages 50-64; 50% for those 30-49; and 35% for those 16-29.

County's COVID-19 Cases Remain High: Saline County is still seeing a high rate of COVID-19 transmission, according to the CDC. Over the past week, the county has seen 38 cases, equally a case rate of 267 per 100,000 people (the standard for comparing counties nationally). The case rate is supposed to be around 50 before it's considered low risk for transmission.

New Tower Should Improve Dorchester's Cell Phone Coverage: Verizon and other communication service customers in Dorchester suffer from spotty (at best) cell service. But that reception may be improved soon. Late last month, the Dorchester Planning Commission (Justin Sand, Faith Nerud, John Yeackley, Nancy Tellez, and Brent Zoubek) recommended that the Dorchester village board approve a conditional use permit for a new wireless telecommunications tower that would serve the community and surrounding area. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

Squirrel Causes Dorchester Blackout: According to an email sent to the Times, a squirrel met it's match when it stepped on an electrical transformer last Sunday, Nov. 7. (For the sake of our audience, we are not publishing the photo of the squirrel's remains. Yes, that was also emailed to us.) The critter's misfortune left residents in the west side of the community without power for a while. But electricity crews from the City of Crete, which provides utility service to the Village of Dorchester, made their way quickly down Highway 33 to restore the flow of electrons.

1 comment:

AnonymousNovember 11, 2021 at 10:56 AM
nice reporting times
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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."