County officials in Pulaski County are apparently following the example set by Governor Daniels on time zone laws: they are going to ignore the ones they don’t like. Gov. Daniels ignored IC 1-8-1.1-3 when he opposed St. Joseph County’s petition to switch to Central Time despite the state law that told him the state is supposed to support such a petition. According to WSBT:
Pulaski County leaders say they will defy the federal government and stay on Eastern time in April.
County leaders voted to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to reconsider their decision to place the county on Central time. If that decision is not made by April 2nd, county leaders say they will declare home rule and make Eastern the official time of the county.
The Pulaski County leaders also point to the fact that counties around Cincinnati and Louisville ignored federal law for the past 30 years. They call it “Home Rule.” I can pretty much guarantee that Indiana’s “Home Rule” statutes do not permit time zone defiance. The time zones are set by federal law, and the state of Indiana, even were it so inclined, does not have the power to confer upon localities the authority to ignore federal law. I think that, in the case of the southeastern counties, it was a case of benign neglect on the part of the feds. It would be interesting to see if the feds would be willing to look the other way in Pulaski County.
An Associated Press story on the subject explains Pulaski County’s shifting preference.
Officials in the county midway between South Bend and Lafayette asked for the shift last year when neighboring counties were doing the same. But the federal agency shifted only Pulaski and neighboring Starke counties to Central time and rejected requests from six other nearby counties.
Once again, all of this highlights the clusterf*&k created when the Governor and the General Assembly decided to move ahead with implementing statewide Daylight Saving Time without crafting a proposed time zone solution on a statewide basis.
Also, I missed that at least some citizens in Martin County are having second thoughts:
Martin County officials are reconsidering a time zone switch approved last month by a federal agency amid growing concern about its impact on the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center.
Workers at the base, which is southern Indiana’s second-largest employer, want it to remain on Eastern time, and not move to Central time, said Cary Bledsoe, a representative of Crane’s six employee organizations. . .
The [Martin County] commissioners said they would set a date for a new public hearing on the time zone change during their Feb. 14 meeting.
From what I have read the Martin County officials are not so much considering a request to undo the change but granting a gripe session to out of county workers (mostly from Lawrence County) at Crane who have organized a protest. The commissioners have pointed out that as many of their own residents would have their schedules disrupted by introduction of a time line between Martin and Dubois counties as will be between Lawrence/Greene Counties and Martin. I don’t look for anything to come of the Martin County “hearing”. The Crane base commander does not support this group.
Pulaski county’s reaction again points out the real issue for the huge majority of people with time zone assignment. It’s neither CT or ET ; it’s being put into a unified area for daily, routine travel using whichever time unifies.
I Pulaski County. Stick it to the (short) man.
This time zone issue, and its “resolution”, has been about the dumbest thing I’ve witnessed in a long time. It’s so bad, I’m finding it hard to believe the president isn’t involved somehow.
that is, I LOVE pulaski county.
My predictions are that we will see more and more counties that were changed to Central time sorry about what they did. Remember before these backwards Indiana Counties petitioned to change, no county in the US had ever asked to be changed to a more westwardly time zone.
As far as counties wanting to go back to ET from CT, it’s very doubtful,including Martin county.Judging from all the comments on the dockets, including the regional hearings, the SW counties got exactly what they wanted and see CT as a unifier ,not as a divider, and they dont care what time it is in Indianapolis. Otherwise ,newly on CT in the NW quadrant, we have Stark County,and probably they’re happy,too.Pulaski County may have to stay on CT, and get used to it,but anyone can guess differently.
With the addition of Perry County to CT,the CTZ in IN now coincides almost exactly with the CTZ in KY.
Richard’s comments about no county ever asking to move to a more westerly time zone are flat wrong. All of Michigan was in the ETZ before Daylight Saving was introduced after a referenedum in 1970. The four westernmost counties of the UP then asked for and were moved to Central Time where they remain to this day. The Alaska panhandle was on Pacific Time until the Alaska time zone consolidation case of the early 1980’s when it was moved to Yukon time (now renamed Alaska time). The long westward creep of time lines reflected the economic dominance of eastward regions, but has, since the 1960’s, slowed to a virtual crawl, excluding a few counties in the Dakotas. The two great economic poles for Indiana are Indianapolis and Chicago and I see no reason for thr time zone tension brought on by those two cities placement in diffferent time zones to diminish, but only to grow, as the spread of suburban Chicago into Porter and southern Lake counties continues.
I stand corrected. Paul is absolutely correct with the Michigan Counties.
I live in Martin county the problem with Mr.Bledsoes argument about how it will hurt Crane is that crane has been 1 hour behind the east coast 7 months out of the year for over thirty years now and the fact that the people he represents are mostly from the eastern time counties of Sullivan ,Greene,Monroe and Lawrence county he is from Sullivan county.The commissioners are just making things worse because at the Martin county time meeting Feb.22 when they ask for a show of hands for eastern time many from the before mentioned counties were raising their hands who do not even live here to be fair many from the town of shoals in Martin county are upset as they are on the eastern edge of the county.The only way to ever find out what most people want is to some how have a county vote.What makes me mad as hell Ihave been involved with this since it started last year going to 2 local hearings and a DOT hearing in Jasper supporting central time and now these people who have had their heads burried in the sand and didn`t take part in the process do not like the current time zone decision!!Since we are already on Evansville time for almost 7 months a year any way what difference will another 5 months make to those who want eastern daylight time?I have believed all along that the problem these people have with central time is when they live and work in 2 different time zones which is a valid argument.For background information almost all of Crane base is in Martin county out of 4000 employees 600 are from Martin county and another 500 or so are from the central time counties of Daviess and Dubois nearly 3000 are from the eastern time counties of Sullivan,Greene,Monroe and Lawrence counties so you see what these peoples argument really is!!