In the previous post, I mentioned the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette’s reporting of public comment before the Allen County Commissioners concerning time zone preference. Paul O’Malley was quoted in his support for the Central Time Zone. I thought Paul’s subsequent comment to the blog was more astute than anything I or the Journal Gazette have said lately, so I’m going to repost it here on the front page:
Nice to see that you picked up my comment. While speakers supporting Eastern Time outnumbered those supporting Central Time, it might be noted that the ETZ backers were packing the speaking list by importing people from Ohio and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. The only “outsider” speaking for Central Time was David R. Kinney from Hoosiers for Central Time. Also, downtown Fort Wayne was being subjected to a violent thunderstorm before and during the meeting. While the Chamber of Commerce got its people there, the turnout expected from the general population was much lower than expected. The Commissioners attributed this to the weather.
Regarding attitudes toward the time zone issue in Fort Wayne I will allow myself a few comments. Fort Wayne business can look at the map and realize that putting Indiana on Central Time would make Allen County a time zone border county. They see this as an inconvenience. They hope that the time zone boundary will remain tucked away on the other side of the State. Because of this Fort Wayne is not a leader in this area and cannot be expected to be. However our Chamber has in effect stated that Fort Wayne should follow whatever Indianapolis does.
If one time zone is to come to pass in this State, the issue will be decided elsewhere than Fort Wayne. I see South Bend and Indianapolis (for obvious reasons) as critical. The State’s problem of being a time zone border state comes into clearest focus in South Bend. The time line currently runs between St. Joseph and LaPorte counties, both of which are heavily populated and which economically are closely linked. LaPorte County though has strong links west to Chicago and Porter county and is highly unlikely to want to shift to the Eastern Zone. South Bend’s political leadership realizes that it is in South Bend’s interest to push the time zone boundary out of its market area. If South Bend’s leadership is successful, and carries itself and the “Michiana” counties into Central time, the time line will move to between Fort Wayne and Warsaw. Only then will complications of divided state begin to become apparent to Fort Wayne. It is then that the attitudes of Fort Wayne business may begin to shift. Even as things stand our local chamber (of commerce) did admit last night that about 20% of its membership preferred to make the shift now. More importantly though, a move by South Bend keeps the whole issue for the state as a whole very much alive.
So, with that in mind, I’ll try to do a better job of keeping tabs on the news coming out of South Bend on the time zone issue. I suspect it doesn’t hurt Central Time’s chances in South Bend that minority leader Pat Bauer would love to give Gov. Daniels a black eye by turning the time zone issue into even more of a brouhaha than it already is.
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