I came across this article in the Perry County news saying that the Perry County Commissioners have adopted a resolution on Aug. 15 indicating a preference for Central Time. However, they did this to get the ball rolling, they’ll have a hearing on Sept. 15, and they say they’re willing to pull the resolution if it turns out that the County is more in favor of Eastern than Central. The anectdotal evidence suggests a close split and a lot of strong feelings. It also reflects some misunderstanding of the situation among many residents. The Commissioners are apparently getting a lot of comments indicating a preference to remain on Eastern Standard Time year-round. Of course, the Governor and the thinnest majority of the General Assembly destroyed that option. It will be really interesting to see what the southwestern counties of Perry, Dubois, Pike, and Knox do. I would also expect action of some sort in Parke, Fountain, Warren, Benton, and White counties.
The Evansville Courier Press has an editorial entitled Time Trouble.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels last week took to task Indiana county commissioners who are upset that the time-zone issue has landed in their laps. Jennifer Whitson of the Courier & Press Indianapolis bureau quoted him: “I think that some of these folks would rather not have been forced to deal with an issue of local importance; but in that case, they shouldn’t have run for their jobs.”
Truth told, few elected officials really want to deal with controversial issues, and that could go for Daniels, as well. He’s the one who put the issues of statewide daylight-saving time and one statewide time zone on the table. In fact, he succeeded in getting daylight-saving time through the Legislature but backed off on time zones after setting the process in motion.
. . .
we have the potential here for checkerboard counties in which motorists driving north from Evansville could find themselves going into and out of the Central and Eastern time zones several times for the first 150 miles. That could take confusion about Indiana time to a whole new level.
The Courier Press followed up on that editorial with another one entitled Checkerboard Clock
The Associated Press reports that county commissioners in Cass and Carroll counties have voted to ask the DOT to move them into the Central zone.
Those two counties are located northeast of Tippecanoe County, home of Lafayette, Ind., and Purdue University. And, the AP tells us, Tippecanoe, where there is sentiment to remain on the same time as Indianapolis and Marion County, has decided to stay in the Eastern time zone, This means that a motorist driv-ing from the east in a southwesterly direction could pass through Cass and Carroll counties in the Central time zone, only to motor farther west into the Eastern-zone county of Tippecanoe.
Explain that one to the folks on the East Coast who were confused about Hoosier time before Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Indiana Legislature fixed things.
. . .Daniels persuaded the Legislature to put all of Indiana on daylight-saving time in return for his asking the DOT to hold hearings on time zone changes. This tracks back to his comment as a candidate last year that all of Indiana should observe daylight-saving time and all of the state should be in one time zone, preferably the Central zone.
Since then, Daniels has stepped back from the time zone debate, joining the federal government in saying the decision is up to the individual counties.
. . .
Let us make two predictions here. First, the DOT may look at the checkerboard pattern that is developing and tell the counties to forget it. And second, Daniels will wish he could forget it.
The Terre Haute Tribune Star has an editorial suggesting that despite residents of Vigo County’s strong preference to be on Central Time, the only thing that really matters is staying on the same time zone as Indianapolis. But, they call this an “unhappy predicament and note, “Still, this is not a dilemma we asked for. It was created by Gov. Daniels. Hoosiers need to remember that.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the State, Niki Kelly has an article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette entitled Time Zone battle heats up on Web, describing mainly what she found at the USDOT Docket. My only beef with Ms. Kelly’s article is the paragraph:
The majority lean toward the Eastern time zone – including virtually all of the business posts – but others are still pushing the Central time zone.
This is factually true, but it would have been nice to mention that most of the pro-Eastern letters closely resemble the Chamber of Commerce recommended form letter.
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