Thanks to Jim for the link. The South Bend Tribune has an article entitled Time fight: Where’s Daniels? It suggests some agitation on the part of leaders from St. Joseph County and surrounding counties over the lack of leadership from Governor Daniels on the time zone mess he got us into. Daniels will apparently meet with the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce. His spokesperson says the issue of time zones will probably come up.
My prediction is that Daniels will issue fuzzy statements that say 1. “It’s a local issue.” 2. “Elkhart and St. Joseph counties shouldn’t be split.” He won’t come right out and suggest one time zone or another for the area. But, the implication will be that it is up to St. Joseph County to do something about the split (i.e. choose Eastern Time.) No similar pressure will be put on Elkhart County (i.e. ask for Central Time) — remember, nothing prevents county commissioners from submitting a request to the Dept. of Transportation at any time. It may not get on the “group docket”. But, at this point, that would be a technicality. The USDOT would be quite aware of any such request from Elkhart County as it was deliberating on the pending county requests. So, if no pressure is put on Elkhart County, it’s not because the commissioners there can’t do anything; it will be because the Governor chooses not to.
The news coverage seems skewed that way as well. As if it’s up to St. Joseph County to make Elkhart happy rather than the other way around.
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