I haven’t had time to look at the final rule, but the Indy Star is reporting that the USDOT has issued a final rule allowing Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike counties to move from the Central to the Eastern time zone.
The USDOT denied Perry County’s petition to move from Central to Eastern:
In denying Perry County’s petition, the DOT said that the county appears to be oriented to Central time, and that the petition did not provide sufficient justification to make the change.
Congratulations Perry County. We’ve successfully tied ourselved to Evansville while most of the state remained Eastern. What a screwed-up map our state has created for ourselves, and none more screwed-up than Perry.
We’ve always been accused of being ‘slow’, so I guess ‘slow time’ is befitting of Perry County. Now we’re permanently behind the economic center of the state. This will really hurt us in development. At least some people are happy… they can have their “TV shows” come on at the “right” time.
Perry County commissioner Don Sherry “Hopes this brings an end to it.” Smooth move, commissioner. They requested a move to Eastern, they were the only county denied the move, and yet he hopes this ends it? OK, whatever. The net effect of all of this is that Perry, one of the least populated counties in the state, got moved into a time zone separate from 85% of the rest of the state. But regardless of the merits pro or con, Mr. Sherry just wants it to end.
The strongest, and most significant comment in the ruling comes on page 44 where the DOT states that the “DOT will not consider any petitions for a time zone change from any elected officials in Indiana for at least one year after the effective date of this final rule”.
I’m amazed that Hoosiers can even tell the time!
its just soooo confusing!!
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/18/mickeyat75.ap/story.mickey.watch.jpg
so easy, a mouse can do it!
giggle!
Some people think mice wear shorts, shoes, and gloves, too.
Paul-
Yeah, that stood out to me, too. They gave the rationale that the counties needed to take that long to see the effects of changing or not changing. Of course, what they really mean is that the DOT doesn’t want to be bothered at all by it any longer, but they figure one year is the longest they can ask to not be annoyed by Hoosiers.
Citizens had thirty years to get to know the effects of not changing time zones, and never really committed to changing them. Now we need “another year to know the effects” of the current situation. Will the average citizen’s life change somehow in the next year in a way that will fundamentally change that person’s opinion? I doubt it. It was just the DOT’s way of saying we’re stupid and once it “sinks in” (which they believe takes somewhere between one and two years for Perry Countians, but somewhat less for Pike Countians) we’ll be on board with the current map.
Perry County does line up very nicely with the CTZ across the Ohio River in KY and now all the bridges on Ohio River connect with the same TZ.Also most( 80%?) of the population of Perry County live in the south along Ohio River.. Probably had Perry County been in the original petitioning, and judged with the group, all 6 counties would have been returned to ET..speculation of course..
I stilldon’t understand why any portion of indiana is on Eastern Time. It’s dark when I get up for work and broad daylight at 8 PM – ??!
The one year moratorium seems a boon to Daniels, no inconvenient time zone petitions until just after next year’s election!
Lemming–
Agreed. The whole state should be on year-round Central Daylight time. You would have to go to work in darkness a couple of months per year, but your summer sunsets would be at a more reasonable time.
Lou–
It’s nice that Perry County lines up so nicely that our bridge doesn’t have to connect to a different time zone. However, our bridge connects us to Hawesville. For the privilege of being on the same time as Hawesville, KY, we get to be an hour off from our state capitol, most of our state’s population, most of our state’s businesses and universities, etc. Hawesville is pleasant enough, but I never had a problem being an hour off from them.
Paul, I doubt that will stop people from asking Mitch about the situation.
T.
I look at maps and see where the TZ is drawn,and make observations as to how the map ‘looks’ so since I don’t live there I’m either ‘objective’ or ‘clueless’.The emotion and the politics of the issue have always been beyond me.
It’s amusing that the 2008 issue of Rand MCNally’s Road Atlas just hit the bookstores and they finally put all the counties currently on CT accurately. Of course after Nov 4th, and into 2008 the atlas will be inaccurate,so keep your old atlas to be updated,making a mental note that Perry County is the exception.There’s maybe a practical reason why DOT is dictating a moratorium on new TZ proposals.It maybe be for the sake of Rand McNally.
I will really miss the dicussions of the TZ issues,and I learned so much about american TZ and DST history during the process of the Indiana time debates,and I will always continue to read the Indiana news here on this blog.Thank you all so much.
Lou’ I don’t think the discussion is over. Kind of like how the discussion wasn’t over after DST was defeated time and time again in the House and Senate for all those years. Does anybody have the docket number for the comments and this new ruling? I have the old one.
Lou–
You’re both objective and clueless. And I mean that in the nicest way.
I fully expect Perry County to repetition in the next year. The commissioners will resist it because they are extremely bad at public relations and know that when they try to “handle” it next time, it will create an uproar that their behavior will only make worse. Like most of the counties, Perry was pretty evenly divided when people were arguing for all of those counties to stay on Central, or all to go to Eastern. Now that Dubois is back on Eastern (presumably for good), I expect public opinion to somewhat favor Eastern for Perry. I could be wrong.
T.
My ‘objective naivety’ tells me that TZ proposals are a ‘lose-lose’ strategy for any Indiana politician,but they’ll have to wait a year to test it.The issue starts out with extreme passion,but there is no where to go from there. Time has a habit of settling in,people adjust, and gradually becomes a non issue. We’ll see a year from now which politicans take on the issue because it will utimately mark them as a one-issue candidate…good to get attention,but in long run they would lose as many votes as they win, whichever postion they take.Any compromise on the issue is seen as selling out,so any waffling and theyd start to lose their own advocacy group.And where would the Time issue play out? The counties are set,with maybe an exception here or there.
Perry County may re-petition at some time,but DOT’s criteria would keep them in CT (mho)Their chance for ET was as part of the group of 6 and the commissioners acted too late..That opportunity is now lost.
Once again, the bottom line is…nobody knows what time it is in Indiana!
Northwest of here it’s an hour from now.
It’s interesting to look at the newly formed CT area of SW Indiana and see what holds it together. The former larger CT cities are now in ETZ:Vincennes ( 18,000) Washington and Jasper ( each about 12,000). CT is now an area with Evansville ,the center ( 120,000), with the 4 largest Indiana towns of Princeton, Mt Vernon, Boonville and Tell City, small in comparison, all ranging from 6-8,000 population.But the 3 anchors of the CT area are Evansville and 2 KY cities, Henderson (45,000) and Owensboro (55,000).It’s a KY-Indiana-Ohio River cultural area,and looks to be there to stay,so we shouldn’t expect any movement toward ET( as some people hope and believe will happen).The other 5 counties felt more a part of the state at large than part of this Evansville cultural area,although there is obviously a great deal of ambivalent allegiance. The overall point is that the break seems logical and predictable,although it may not be popular with substantial numbers of people.And it’s basically the same break that occured from 60s to 2005,with CT for same area and ET for the same area,with Perry County an exception.That is ,the counties that returned to ET observance have always chosen the state at large to be 100% allied with timewise. ET was seen as a means of unity ( with or without DST added) and that’s often what CT proponents won’t accept,and they have continually made a case that CDT and EST are the same.But they’re the same only as far as sunrise and sunsets are concerned,and coincide only part of the year,so CDT and EST surely are not the same.Those counties now observing CT have always observed CT.DST may have been the catylist for the recent push for CT,but unfortunately DOT makes no allowance for DST,and that’s why these 5 counties were re-assigned ET.These are personal observations and are casuallly drawn from map study and mentally rehashing past comments.
Lou–
Your comment about the prevailing time is absolutely correct. Areas of the state that have been willing to break with the prevailing statewide time have had good reasons to do so. Essentially the same areas of the state as pre-DST have opted to break with the prevailing state time for their own local reasons and the controversy rages where the alligiances are torn and divided.
Contrary to the wishful thinking of Central Time advocates, there is no manifest destiny for Central Time statewide, at least not at this time. :)
That said, as a matter of process, it seems that the SW Counties did not make their case well to the DOT. I have to read the rest of the ruling to see what evidence they cited to move them back to Eastern.
Steve,
You bring out a very good point that has never been well made.The ‘minority time’ in Indiana,that is CT, is where there is virtually no controversy,that is in NW Indiana and now in the more limited SW area,where there should be little desire to change it.CT is longstanding,culturally and economically unifying for those who observe it.Can anyone imagine a commute from Hammond to the Loop across a TZ line? But as you say, there is no manifest destiny mandate for CT statewide,and no catylist to make it happen. Rep Crooks and others have been quoted as advising: Any movement toward statewide CT would have to come from Indianapolis and spread statewide from there..Does anyone see that scenario developing? To make CT feasible, MI OH and KY would have to make changes to CT in border areas with Indiana to make statewide CT feasible.More likely,Indiana would always minimally have pockets of ET along the borders. That’s way too many hurdles for most politicians and too grand a plan with only partial success probable.The process would also probably grind government to a halt. That’s why I think personally the time issue is dead,except if a county or 2 decides to re-petition after the DOT moratorium is over.