Dorchester Times: Reports: Omicron In Saline County

Friday, December 3, 2021

Reports: Omicron In Saline County

(UPDATE 12/3: Dorchester Public School will host a COVID-19 vaccination clinic Thursday, Dec. 9, from 12-3 p.m. This event is open to the public. Primary doses and booster shots of all three vaccines will be available. All children must be accompanied by a parent. No appointments are necessary. To reduce chances of potential side effects, the Times suggests checking out this site.)

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is here -- in Nebraska, in Saline County.

The Public Health Solutions District -- which includes Fillmore, Gage, Jefferson, Saline, and Thayer counties -- announced today there are six cases of the COVID-19 strain in its five-county area.

Sources have told this blog the cases are definitely in Saline County given the ties to the COVID-positive person who traveled to Nigeria. That person returned home Nov. 23 and started experiencing coronavirus symptoms the next day, according to online reports.

The other five cases were likely linked to the original case through household contact. Of those five, only one person was vaccinated, and that person had not yet gotten a booster dose of the vaccine, other reports say.

All of the infected people have had "mild-to-moderate" symptoms for the time being, but it is too early to tell how the virus will ultimately impact the infected individuals, experts say.

Kim Showalter, director for Public Health Solutions, said it is important to get vaccinated to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including the omicron variant.

The omicron variant was first identified last month in South Africa and since has been detected in dozens of countries. Nebraska is the sixth state to report a case. (Here's what the CDC is saying about the variant.)

Gov. Pete Ricketts has said there are no plans for any additional directed health measures due to the discovery of the latest variant in Nebraska.

New cases of COVID-19 have surged in Thayer, Saline and Jefferson counties over the past two weeks, with rates of 64 or more cases per 10,000 residents.

As of Thursday, there were 553 people hospitalized statewide for COVID-19, including 168 who were in intensive care.

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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."