Roger Moon, writing for the Times-Mail of Lawrence County, has an article entitled Lawrence County residents silent on time zone issue. He is basically commenting on the USDOT docket for the Southwestern Counties’ petition to change time zones and notes the apparent absence of input to the docket from Lawrence County residents “despite the fact that many of the county’s residents are among the 67 percent of Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane employees who a DOT document reports commute from the Eastern to the Central time zone to work at the facility.” The comment period on the USDOT’s notice of proposed rule making has been extended to August 31, 2007.
In the docket materials, there is a real howler from the Governor for anyone who remembers the St. Joseph County situation. In that case, St. Joseph County petitioned to be placed on Central Time. The USDOT entered a preliminary determination that the petition should be granted. Neighboring Elkhart County expressed its displeasure and enlisted the services of the Governor who filed a letter opposing St. Joseph County’s petition despite a state law requiring the state to support any such petition. Now, we get the above linked letter from the Office of the Governor in support of Perry County’s petition to move from Central to Eastern if the request of the other 5 Southwestern Counties is granted. The letter includes this bit:
As you know, during the original round of decision-making on time zone selection in 2005, Perry County petitioned for an opposite result – to be included in the Central time zone. The law passed in 2005 that put Indiana on DST also specifically encouraged each individual county to assert its own view on the choice of time zone, and bound the state to support that view. As governor, my longstanding position has been that local preference should be respected as much as possible.
He adds a caveat about opposing local preference where that preference disrupts the “greater good of a larger region.” That’s to cover his ass because of his actions in St. Joseph County. He doesn’t point to the provision of the law that relieves the State of its duty to support a local petition when the caveat applies, because no such exception to the law exists.
Aside from that, the notion that the Governor has had a “long standing” position on anything other than the mere fact of Daylight Saving Time itself. From the inception of his campaign, he was for Daylight Saving Time. But, during his campaign, he was also on record as being in favor of state-wide Central Time. Then, as required by state law, he requested state-wide time zone hearings. Eventually, he just punted, allowing the state to drift by default into a primarily eastern daylight time zone. It wasn’t until the State was well and truly in the midst of the time zone debacle that he came up with the “local control for time zones” position.
As for the “greater good of a larger region” caveat, how in the world does he define that? I can’t say I disagree with him, necessarily, on this point — but I think that points out the flaw in the local control model. I think the relevant “larger region” is Indiana in its entirety. And, I think the “greater good” would be to have the entire state of Indiana on one time zone. Though I think Central Time makes a lot of sense with respect to Indiana’s geographic position, I understand that people have different preferences as to how they like to arrange their day with respect to the available daylight. That’s fine, and I don’t know that I can say one is inherently better than another. But, I think that for the Governor, a “greater good” analysis has to mean greater good for the citizens of Indiana. And, I think a single state time zone would do greater good for Indiana than split zones; even if a single zone might act to the detriment of individual localities — Lake County going to Eastern Time springs immediately to mind.
Hurrumph!
I’m just running with the Governor’s premise that regional good trumps local good. Once you’ve done that, logic dictates One World Government and black helicopters.
Of course the Governor has never favored us with explaining how the “greater regional good” is determined (or even how “regions” are determined for that matter). I suspect in the case of St. Joseph County versus Elkhart County the calculation went no further than asking which of the two counties was the more Republican.
You make a compelling point. Gov. Daniels is not above a bit of humpty-dumptyism.
Paul,you bring up an interesting point. Join St.Joe and LaPorte County you unite two school districts. Join St. Joe and Elkhart you unite workers and employers. Unite all three and you have the best of both worlds except Elkhart needs to be unted with Cass County MI. Seems to me that THE GREATER REGIONAL GOOD would have come from placing Elkhart in the Central Time Zone. I have NEVER been able to get anybody to answer taht question though.
I see benefit to northern Indiana in having all these counties on Central Time. But why does Elkhart County need to be “united” with Cass County? Elkhart County wasn’t complaining much about being on year round standard time. After passage of SEA 127 Elkhart County Commissioner Yoder commented something to the effect that Daniels wouldn’t get 10 votes in Elkhart County were he running for reelection.
Being on year round EST meant that Elkhart County was an hour off from Cass County seven months a year. Apparently a biannual “change” in time zone didn’t work such a “disruption” (the word used by Elkhart County Commissioner Yoder at the South Bend time zone hearing) in commuting patterns into Elkhart County from Cass that Elkhart County’s economy was crashing down. A fixed one hour difference has to be easier for commuters to deal with than a twice a year change. As an aside, Monoco Coach, one of the biggest private employers in Elkhart County, endorsed moving Elkhart County to Central Time.
At the South Bend time zone hearing (I was sitting just a few feet from the speaker’s podium so I heard this very well) the Elkhart County commissioners bragged about how well they were doing. Might it be that Elkhart County’s real fear was that they would end up with a time line divided school district between themselves and Kosciusko County?
With energy costs posing a threat to Elkhart County’s precious RV industry, the residents of St. Joseph County would do well to look to where there is potential for growth and not worry overly about Elkhart County officials’ public musings about what might go wrong.
Paul, if Elkhart would have gone Central Kosciusko would have followed along then with Whitley. Damage control on the part of Mitch working for the chamber of commerce, requires him to end Central Time at LaPorte County. I despise the man for that!!
This is a submission I made to the new docket. The regular readers know my position on this issue. But I think everyone will find something new in some quotes I found in newspaper clippings.
We, the people of Indiana, have not been treated fairly. A virtual fence has been erected in our midst. The location of which is totally out of our control. This fence separates families, workers from their work, and it even divides school corporations and farmers from their fields. Altogether, it interferes with the scheduling of activities, hinders the otherwise normal social and commercial interactions between the sides and creates friction and confusion where none need exist. The fence is not nearly as divisive as the Berlin Wall but the process by which it was built and sustained was more like one from 19th century America or the 20th century Soviet Union than from the world’s greatest democracy.
The fence did not legally exist inside Indiana before 1961. It was then located on the Indiana /Ohio border where it had been moved from the center of Ohio to eliminate the very problems it has since created in Indiana. In 1961, Mayor Charles Boswell of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce persuaded the Interstate Commerce Commission to transfer 43 Indiana counties from the central time zone to the eastern zone. At a 1960 time zone hearing the mayor had testified that his city conducted much business with cities in the eastern zone and his city’s commerce would benefit by being in the eastern zone. At the same hearing, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce issued a statement suggesting that eventually the eastern zone be extended to the Mississippi River. Some time after the hearing, the Interstate Commerce Commission examiner, Thomas Pyne, said that the evidence did not support moving Indiana to the eastern zone and he was going to recommend to the Commission that Indiana remain in the central zone. He may have been aware that a 1956 state-wide referendum had shown a decided preference for central time.
The ICC ruling in 1961 to split Indiana into two zones made it obvious that the mayor and the Chamber had continued to lobby the members of the ICC after the hearing. They were in a position to exert considerable influence. The Chamber of Commerce is a national lobbying organization with its headquarters in Washington D.C. It is reasonable to assume that the Chamber had cultivated personal relationships with the members of the Commission. Between the hearing in 1960 and the ruling in 1961 there was a national election. Mayor Boswell’s recent obituary mentioned that he had been Candidate Kennedy’s leading supporter in Indiana. In fact, President Kennedy appointed him Indianapolis Postmaster in 1962 and much later he became the postmaster of Indiana.
In all fairness, I don’t believe the participants realized the enormity of the ruling. It was the first and only time the federal government has moved (with the exception of a sparsely populated region in Western Oregon) a time zone boundary across a state line thereby dividing a previously unified state. Once you start dividing a state where and when do you stop? No one wants a zone boundary next to them. The professionals at ICC had long recognized it was better to place a boundary at a state line when possible than on a county line. The president of the Indiana Farm Bureau, George Doup, addressed this problem when he spoke in opposition at the 1960 hearing, “ Since this hearing today pertains only to splitting Indiana two time zones, we therefore make this recommendation: we oppose splitting Indiana into two time zones. Keep the whole state on one and the same time. Indiana’s vertical geographical shape multiplies the problems of two time zones. This long friction line, touching 25 counties, would cause needless aggravation in business operations and living conditions.â€
Mr. Doup was a little off on his count. 32 Indiana counties would eventually be separated by the friction line. If only his wisdom had been heeded we would have avoided the subsequent turmoil. The 1961 ruling transferred a problem that rightfully belonged to Ohio and gave it to Indiana. We didn’t just borrow trouble from Ohio. We bought it hook, line, and sinker. In the rationale USDOT gave for its 2006 ruling, it mentions there is a strong desire for unity within the state. Many of the respondents to this current docket that favor eastern do so not because they are enamored with that time but because being on a different time than the neighboring counties creates problems for them. Others state a desire to go back to the time they had two years ago without realizing that time, Eastern Standard, is no long available. It has been replaced by Eastern Daylight. If Vincennes, for example, were to be placed on eastern it would go from zero days with sunrises later than 7:20 to 73 days with sunrises at 8 o’clock or later. Their winters wouldn’t really be any longer but the dark mornings will make it seem so.
The ruling put Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Marion, Muncie, Anderson, Indianapolis, and Greensburg into the eastern zone. Gary, South Bend, Lafayette, Kokomo, Terre Haute, Bloomington, and Evansville remained in the central zone. It is very difficult to understand how putting a fence between Indiana’s largest cities could satisfy the convenience of commerce requirement. The hearing examiner, Thomas Pyne, had stated “The ICC has frequently found that it has no authority to extend a time zone merely to bring about ‘fast’ time or as a substitute for daylight savings time.†But I think ‘fast’ time is precisely the reason the petitioners wanted eastern. Somewhere it must be written in the Chamber of Commerce Bible that to enter Commerce Heaven one must first observe daylight savings time because they certainly promote it with a religious zeal. It did show that the leadership for Indiana’s capital city, Indianapolis, valued its relationships with the east coast more than those with its fellow Hoosiers.
I have brought up this history to demonstrate that Indiana hasn’t always been divided nor was it split for the benefit of commerce or by popular acclaim. It borders on the absurd for USDOT to even consider putting Vincennes and the neighboring counties into the eastern zone since it is only 122 miles from the center of the central zone and 675 miles from the eastern meridian. How will it be convenient for the region’s commerce to have the latest sunrises in the country? Starting in mid October and ending in mid March the region with EDT would have 5 months in which 73 sunrises will be later than 8 o’clock. This is highly unusual because any location that has not been transferred from its natural zone will ever have a single day with sunrises after 8 o’clock.
The Interstate Commerce Commission made a mistake in 1961 when it chose to divide Indiana to satisfy a special interest group without getting the people’s consent. The USDOT would compound this mistake by making another ruling without the consent of the people. To transfer these 5 counties because Indianapolis chose to be in the eastern zone would be unfair. The powers that be have not allowed the people a voice in this matter. Every attempt to have a referendum has been killed in committee.
You folks at DOT must be weary of Indiana time by now. By my count this is the fourth time the federal government has been called upon to make a major adjustment to the time zone boundary in Indiana. To many of us the difference between the zones is the difference between night and day so please try to understand why we get so emotional about it. And many of us feel we have had no say. No candidate for state office has ever campaigned for Eastern Time let alone Eastern Daylight Time. The question is where can you put this fence in Indiana without causing problems. It seems to me that DOT would welcome the guidance of the people.
Governor Daniels-Tear down this fence! It doesn’t belong in Indiana.
I think the closest we can come to time zone unity in the state is for all of the former year-round EST counties to move to Central, which would give us an 87 County CTZ/5 County ETZ split with over 95% of the population in the CTZ. I can just barely imagine a 90 County ETZ/2 County CTZ split moving the other way, but there is nothing on earth short of putting Chicago on Eastern time that will move Lake and Porter Counties to Eastern. Those two counties alone are over 10% of Indiana’s population and southern Lake and Porter are also growing strongly. Jasper County is experiencing very strong growth and La Porte and Starke have very recently looked stronger then they have in decades. Why should La Porte, Starke, Newton or Jasper counties go eastern? Jim B. is correct that the Indianapolis business elite is the source of our state’s division, but following Indianapolis’s lead on time issue only means that the time divide will never go away. As Chicago sprawls ever outward the tension in the northern part of the state will only grow as long as Indy remains an ETZ city and holds the center of the state on Eastern.
Here in my out-of-state perspective.In the area that had been always on CT,that is NW and SW corners of the state there has been nearly no dissatisfaction.The turmoil came when more counties were added to CT,and setting the TZ farther into Indiana,thereby dividing more people from more people within the state. Then significant( and unexpected) opposition began to build just after the first new time change.
My unlearned opinion is that Indiana will always have CT as a minority TZ,and the fewest counties in CT( the minority time),the more united the state will be in one time( ET).And my opinion is that state boundaries are definitive for state legal matters( as one example) but not so much for TZ issues.Economics and displacement of people arent impeded by state boundaries for those who live near borders.That seems elementary.
It was the implementation of Daylight Saving Time that caused the disruption. The entire state, with the exception of a few counties acting illegally in the southeast, had effectively been on Central Daylight Time 7 months out of the year without significant unhappiness.
The recent time zone shifts are an effort to mitigate the unhappiness caused by the adoption of DST. Obviously those efforts have not been entirely (to understate the matter) satisfactory.
If we take the DST proponents at their word that their interest was eliminating confusion about the time in Indiana; confusion which supposedly inhibited Indiana’s economic development, then the best way to entirely eliminate confusion is to put the State on one time zone. I don’t really buy into their rationale, but then I wouldn’t have implemented DST in the first place.
Jim B is absolutely correct. The source of the problem is Indy. Also as long as, Chicago continues to expand east, problems will continue in the northern counties especially St. Joseph. Cases in point, New Prairie Schools are divided in the two timezones. They are also the only exemplary school in the county. As people continue to bail on South Bend Scools they will ask why are we having “town” and “school” time. The power will shift from the east to the west. NPSCS is obviously planning upon this as they are in the middle of adding a new middle school and do not have the current numbers to support such an addition.(Daniels’ building approval board passed the matter on a vote of four to three) I have a friend on that board.He voted against Also as LaPorte County adds one possibly two intermodals this will increase employment possibilities for St. Joseph County residents drawing them away from Elkhart County.
Paul,I was also at the South Bend timezone hearings and remember Mike Yoder saying that he would support a move to Central time if it was for the entire state so much for his connection to Cass County. I further wonder just how many of his employees come from Cass County?? (his family owns Jay-Co) Further evidence is that Monaco coach was in favor of Elkhart going to Central time. No added suspicion here except you might want to keep the competition back. Yoder was the person who said his county did not even need to have public hearing on the sudject. There has just been a bad smell to all of this issue,that I do not see going away soon.