Dorchester Gets Hammered by Summer Storms: During the early morning hours of Saturday, Aug. 9, the Dorchester area was hit with a storm that packed wind gusts between 80 and 90 mph, sustained for nearly an hour. Extensive tree and structural damage was apparent throughout the community and surrounding countryside. Dorchester was without electricity for about 12 hours on Saturday as temperatures soared near 95 degrees with high humidity. Early Sunday morning, around 1:30 a.m., another round of heavy storms brought around 3.5" of rain, which brought the weekend total to nearly 4.5". In other areas of southeast Nebraska, the Saturday storm left tens of thousands without power, including nearly 70% of Seward County. One person was killed at a state park near Omaha. Read more.
Village Board Sets Stage to OK More Paved Streets: In recent years, Dorchester has seen a significant amount of newly paved streets, primarily the sections around the village park, near the Farmers Cooperative headquarters and grain elevator, and the resurfacing of main street (Washington Ave.). Now it appears the stage is set to pave more of the village's residential section. On July 9, the Village of Dorchester Board of Trustees voted to approve ordinances (2025-02 and 2025-03) to establish street improvement districts. In Nebraska, a street improvement district (or SID) is a special taxing district formed by a city or village. It's a mechanism used to finance public infrastructure projects, primarily the paving or improving of streets, curbs, and gutters within a specific area. According to a public notice -- which was published only on the subscription-based Crete News site, but not the village site -- the new SIDs in Dorchester would ensure the paving of 11 St. from Jefferson to Lincoln Aves., as well as from the state spur to just east of Sumner Ave. The paving will still need to be OK'd by property owners within the SID boundaries, and the village will have the authority to issue bonds to pay for the improvements. The financial burden of the improvements falls on the property owners within the district, not the general public.
New School Year Begins at DPS: Another school year kicks off this Thursday, Aug. 15 at Dorchester Public School. See the school calendar here. Parents and other taxpayers of the district can find information on the school board and administrative staff on the school website. Please note the newsletters have not been updated on the site for some time.
What's Going On With City Slickers?: City Slickers Bar and Grill -- loved by area residents for more than a dozen years -- has been closed for approximately two weeks, since Aug. 1. And the establishment hasn't been operating on weekends since mid-July. Little information is available regarding the reason. Even employees of the restaurant seem to be out of the loop. City Slickers started in June 2013 under owners, Jason and Kathy Duhrkop, who purchased the establishment from Rob Parks, who had owned and operated Joe's Place since 2009. The bar and restaurant traces its modern-era roots back to 1952, when Joe Ladman bought the building and started Joe's Place, which operated until 2004 when Ladman's son-in-law, Dewayne Schmale, sold the bar to Verna Lewis. From 2004-2006, the bar was known as the Blue Moose. When the bar changed hands again in 2007, under Sheryl Olson, it was known as the West Side Saloon until 2009, when it again became Joe's Place under Parks. It was the Duhrkops who truly transformed the pub into a more traditional sit-down restaurant, which has attracted patrons from a four-county area and brought a tremendous amount of commerce to Dorchester. We at the Times are hopeful that the establishment gets back up and running for the sake of our community and area residents.
