The Indy Star has a DST article in today’s paper that mostly looks at Martin County and the town of Shoals Indiana. Of more interest to me was poll information in the sidebar. Of Daniels claim that DST was necessary to improve the economy, only 16% of Hoosiers believe that the shift will have a major economic impact, and only 21% think DST is a change for the better.
In recurring comments,now from Martin County, it seems many people thought that voting for CT for their county was just a step to put all of Indiana on CT.Martin County seems to have close ties with Lawrence County(Bedford),but Lawrence County was never considered seriously for CT (was it?) Many, many comments were on USDOT time zone petition docket like that, also commentary from all the local hearings had many comments like’ All of Indiana should be on CT’.That was never the issue,and somehow people were mislead. That may have been the ultimate goal of many,but it was clearly not the goal of the county-by-county process that was set up by USDOT,which was simply to petition for CT ,or stay ET.I think the worst delusion was people advocating CT for Joseph County, thinking it was merely a necessary step to unite Indiana on statewide CT.I never understood that thinking,( who wants to live in a time island?)but probably it’s because Im not a permanent Indiana resident.
For what it’s worth, I was at the Logansport hearing the first time I heard definitively that USDOT would not consider switching non-petitioning counties regardless of the “convenience of commerce.” USDOT most certainly has the authority to move a time zone, petition or no petition.
The Logansport hearing was when I first became aware of how significantly the deck was stacked against Central Time. That’s fairly significant if you keep in mind that Indiana had functionally been on Central Time most of the year for the past 30 years.
Yes,, I think ET is in Indiana to stay,along with DST. ET in Michigan,Kentucky and Indianapolis will prevent any statewide move to CT.Also many people look at DST as a completion of EST and dont look at EST year round as the same as CDT,as ALL those who favor CT for Indiana see it. It would take a govenor with CT for whole state as his prime issue and he’d have to fight the very strong ET lobby of Indianapolis,and even if he were successful he’d end up with a significant number of constituents furious with him. Its not what your typical(smart) politician would choose to take on. Gov.Daniels was naive and not from Indiana and he may pay the price,along with his party, for DST ,but its here to stay.( my opinion)
By this time next Sunday we will all be on the new time regime,and I will know when I relocate to Indiana that living in or near Indianapolis will keep me safe from any nearby time zone crossings
Hopefully no more comments from me about time in Indiana,but its been such a consuming issue.It takes me back when I was a kid and we ‘went to the races’,always discussing what time it was going to be when we arrived.
Lou’s comments about Martin County’s ties to Lawrence County seemed to be based exclusively on the anecdotes appearing in the Star. Were consideration given to traffic and commuting patterns it would show much stronger ties between Martin and Daviess Counties than between Martin and Lawrence Counties. No matter where the line is drawn (unless it is down the middle of a lake such as between Wisconsin and the LP of Michigan) you can always conjure up someone whose schedule has been upset.
It didn’t get dark here yesterday until about 7:30 p.m. By next Sunday it will be around 8:30 or so before it gets dark. For good or for bad, love it or hate it, it is going to get dark at night much later than most of us are used to for the next six months.
It seems you cant draw any time line along any county line in Indiana without dividing up a school district.