As you might expect, I’ve been out of touch for the past 3 weeks and haven’t paid much attention to the goings on in Indiana. Anything I need to know about to get my finger on the pulse of the Hoosier state?
Masson's Blog
As you might expect, I’ve been out of touch for the past 3 weeks and haven’t paid much attention to the goings on in Indiana. Anything I need to know about to get my finger on the pulse of the Hoosier state?
Welcome back!I will post a few words about my favorite subject the time zone situation in SW Indiana.Comments have now reached over 3000 counting those moved from the 22114 docket.Unlike the Pulaski county situation the comments are running close to 50-50 Central vs Eastern.There are a few more Eastern because of the 3000 Eastern time county Crane employees commenting but that is their right since the DOT asked for surrounding counties comments which is why I wrote a letter to the editor to the Evansville Courier stating that the DOT is asking for surrounding county comments and indeed many have been forth coming from the original Central time zone counties since they send many commuters to our six counties.The Courier also ran a opinion piece the same day discussing the issue.
The Vincennes Sun Commercial ran a poll recently Central vs Eastern and had their biggest response ever.over 11,000 for Central just over 6,000 for Eastern.Comments have came also from Paul O,Malley from FT Wayne submitting a detailed submission for Central and Bill Star from Columbus for Central also many people from Illinois submitting for Central who commute to Knox county to work and do business and Central time comments from western KY.I also believe Jim B from Indy who frequents this blog submitted a good detailed post for Central time at least I think it is him.Out of thousands of businesses in the six counties only a hand full have commented the majority for Eastern and many of those are global companies.Several small businesses have commented for Central.
A movement by Meyers Distributing in Dubois county sprang up for Central time and believe it or not they bought advertising on the radio.They called themselves Dubois county 4 Central time.com I believe and posted 499 names with comments for Central in their last submission.
The comment period was extended for all six counties until August 31.The rehtoric is heated.The Evansville Courier ran another story last week about the issue and local papers are covering it a lot.
Fearing the comments from Martin county were not coming in enough for Eastern time the governors office advertised in the Loogootee Tribune and Shoals News the week before last soliciting comments for Eastern time from Martin county.
Pike county is another matter and for that someone may wish to inform me if there is a Michael McCully working in the governors office.This relates to a email a anonymous poster received and posted on the docket in which a Mark Flint contacted Paul A. Lake Pike County Econmic Developement Council and told him this McCully had contacted him and stated Pike county needed more Eastern time comments and if they did not get them could possibly be left on Central time while the other four counties were moved to Eastern.I thought something was up when I started reading comments from Pike county saying they needed to be on Eastern time since Dubois was going to end up on Eastern then this email surfaced.The governor’s office knows this is a Joint Petition and all counties stay Central or go Eastern.The submission number of this email is 2625.
A submission 2609 by a Jennifer Neff who owns a small business in Dubois county also tells of being afraid of supporting Central time because of the pressure the big businesses of Dubois county could bring to bear on her small business but she submitted for Central anyway.
Governor Daniels submitted a letter to DOT secretary Mary Peters this week supporting Eastern time for the counties falling back on his previous lie that “assumptions were made about some counties possibly being Central that turned out not to be true line”
This is a out right lie!All counties and their officials who spoke up for Central time at the DOT Jasper hearing in November of 2005 were granted Central.Lawrence and Sullivan counties were denied Central but are NOT considered part of SW Indiana and NO officials from our six counties expressed a desire to be on the same time as Sullivan or Lawrence counties!The record and what was said at this hearing is on the docket.
NSA Crane finally submitted for Eastern time or at least the Counsel for Crane submitted a few pages and the commander signed it.The same commander who told Martin county commissioner Mike Dant the base would be fine on Central time.Mainly the letter cites personal inconveniences of Cranes mainly Eastern time workforce which I agree with. The problem is that as stated in the NPRM that even more commuters will be burdened by moving the time boundary again.Many of Crane’s employees are allowed flex scheduling and have a very liberal leave policy.
Mr.Byrd continues to subbmit detailed convenience of commerce information just last week he broke down the distances of the nearest greyhound bus service using map quest for each county.He also broke down all local high school football schedules and conferences and opponents time zone.He also did this with basketball in a earlier post.Ice Miller used only 5 schools to make their case for Eastern time.In basketball Mr.Byrd used ALL 15 schools located in the five counties and used every school that participates in Football.
The town of Santa Claus in Spencer county submitted a entry a attorney prepared for Central time.Huber and Goffinet is handeling the Perry county re-petition for Eastern and submitted their follow up this week.As far as businesses from Perry county a petition has been submitted showing 74% want to remain on Central time as well as 2000 citizens.
Popularity has nothing to do with the issue however The Joint Petition asserts a “GROUNDSWELL FOR EASTERN TIME” in the five counties.This GROUNDSWELL HAS YET TO materialize on docket 28746!It is pretty much divided.The last time business and public opinion were divided as stated in the St.Joseph county case the DOT cited this as a reason they denied the NPRM to move the county to Central time.In my opinion it was denied because governor Daniels told the DOT to deny it.
In a email exchange posted on the docket and phone conversations by Central time supporter and Loogootee resident, Postmaster Mike Engleman expressing his frustration to Senior Counsel Judith Kaleta over how the error ridden Joint Petition could have gotten this far he goes on to write what many of us here feel is true and that is that this once rural and friendly region is locked in a heated debate with mean spirited rhetoric from both sides.It is ugly.We thank the governor!For those who say this is not the governors fault tell it to someone else because no one here will believe that not even the local papers who slam the governor over the issue constantly.
We who support Central time have submitted enough detailed evidence to deny the NPRM.The burden should be on the counties and indeed in the NPRM the DOT notes several instances where the evidence does not support a time zone change.With Perry county thrown into this mix the evidence in every facet is even more skewed toward Central time.They call this region in SW Indiana the TRI-STATE.SW Indiana,Southern Illinois,and Western Kentucky all on Central time for now at least.
In the end though I believe it will matter not one bit because I have always believed this is a tainted and rigged process.
OMG: can you people just get over the time issue?
Doug —
In FW Mayor’s race — the Rep. Kelty was indicted on 9 counts – two being perjury. Likely win for a weaker Dem Candidate.. as the Allen Co. Rep Party implodes over it.
In Clark Co — the former Young Republican Leader Glenn Murphy – big supporter of all that is moral in the Party — accused of taking oral liberties with a sleeping young man. Has been expunged from the Party records. Case is now in hands of special prosecutor.
Indy continues to roil — although Rep Cand Ballard still seems unlikely winner.
In West Lafayette, the rumors around the mayor’s race are still the most common currency. I may have more on that this week as I help to interview all the candidates.
And thanks for the great respite in your blog. Loved the pics man!
Idunno,
No we can’t!If you want this fence in your backyard that’s your preference.No one in SW Indiana wants it in theirs.It is extremely inconvenient for people scheduling appts,missing their childrens school events and activities,commuting between two time zones daily for work etc…No one wants to have to commute home from a long days work to find they’ve lost a hour.True they can leave home later in the case of Eastern commuting to Central but persons getting off work and commuting home in this scenario with a average 1 hour commute can leave work at 5:00pm Central only to find themselves getting home at 7:00pm.
Also everyone in the area whether supporting Eastern or Central Democrat or Republican knows who caused this mess!Governor Daniels.
Idunno,
You know what you are right.I believe I will get over the time issue as it relates to this blog.I simply posted what was going on in my part of Indiana where friends,family and neighbors are debating a issue as it relates to their daily lives and is important to them.This is what people are talking about on main street,the grocery store and amongst themselves in SW Indiana. Contrary to the beliefs by some people in this state(not saying you) this state does exist beyond northern and central Indiana.
So I will do everyone a favor and make this my last post period to this blog about anything!!
I wish all of you well in your professional and family life.Goodbye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Phillip, please don’t leave!
Idunno, please get don’t be mean! Phillip was just answering Doug’s call for information. He was free to ignore Phillip’s info if he wasn’t intrested, same as you.
Keep in mind that the time zone issue is how many people that read this blog came here. Watch any time that a time zone post comes up, and the comments go into the double-digits almost every time. It isn’t that TZ is such a huge issue in Indiana, it is more than there is a higher concetration of TZ-intrested people reading here.
Doug did (and still does) an OUTSTANDING job finding and reporting on the time zone issue, and this blog became a central point to talk about that issue.
Just because we changed the law a few months ago doesn’t mean the issue is over. As is commonly pointed out here, the people that WANTED DST tried for 20 years.
“Can we have DST?”
“No, let’s do year-round DST and move from Central time to Eastern time. If more light in the afternoon is good for summer, it must be even better for the winter!”
“Ok, nice compromise”
—-years go by—-
“Hey, we want DST!”
“No.”
“Now?”
“No.
“Now?”
“No.”
—15 years—-
“Now?”
“No…I mean Yes…I mean No….I mean YES!”
“GREAT! Now let’s quit talking about time zone stuff, I’m over it.”
Can’t everyone else at least have 5 years to try the other side?
I love daylight savings time; I rarely want to do anything that requires daylight at 5:00am; I am extremely happy to be able to come home after a long day and water my plants without turning on the outside lights. We have a lot of significant problems in Indiana; the time simply isn’t one of them.
BTW, Doug, you missed the County Council Budget hearings. (I used missed in the broadest sense; watching them was a lot like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer; it felt really good when they were over.) The most amusing part of the whole thing was the Council’s attempt to get the County assessor and the three township assessors to play well together. The whole process makes you long for the elimination of property tax but then what would we do for fun….and stable revenue sources. I was really struck by the importance of property taxes when I toured the Westfield Home-A-Rama this weekend. $2.5 million homes stuck on 1/2 acre lots; at least property taxes reduces the numbers of pseudo-European McMansions in Indiana.
State Fair is over; they had deep fried Pepsi.
Hey that’s big news to me. How the hell do you deep fry a Pepsi? The idea probably became apparent after Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire.
Deep fried Pepsi?!?! Holy schlamoley. I’m not sure Colorado can match that.
To Doug: Welcome back! You haven’t changed much over the years, as evidenced by your Hoosier Pass photos. (That’s a compliment, by the way.)
On DST: Some of us have to get up early in the morning for work and school and also like for it to be light outside in the a.m.–at least for part of the year. Some of us like doing outdoor chores in the early a.m. coolness and light–only there is no light in the early a.m. anymore, especially now that it is almost September. :( Not picking a fight with anyone, just stating a couple of reasons for not liking EDT.
Idunno has summed up some the political happenings.
Phillip: Come back, please!
The winning Powerball ticket was sold in Richmond!