Re: AP - Indiana Time Zone Fight Creates New Problems

On 2005-09-16 22:19:54 -0400, william lynch <x@xxx> said:

This should be entertaining.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050916/ap_on_re_us/indiana_time_fight

By MIKE SMITH, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 16, 6:29 PM ET

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana's decision this year to observe daylight-saving time statewide was supposed to end 30 years of clock-changing confusion. Instead, it sparked a battle that could create a state time zone system as puzzling as a Rubik's Cube.

At least 19 counties had asked to move from Eastern to Central time as of Friday, the deadline to submit requests. If the federal government says yes to all the requests, a person driving from Chicago to southwestern Indiana could go from Central time to Eastern to Central to Eastern and finally back to Central.

"What we are doing is just creating new confusion for ourselves," said retired Indiana University economist Morton Marcus.

Indiana, like about a dozen other states, has long had multiple time zones. But most states are either split roughly down the middle, like South Dakota and Kentucky, or have only slivers in a different zone, such as Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the Florida and Idaho panhandles.

In Indiana, the situation is more complicated. Eighty-two of the state's 92 counties are in the Eastern time zone, but only five change clocks with daylight-saving time. Ten other counties — five in northwestern Indiana and five in the southwest — are on Central time and have observed daylight-saving time.

The clock confusion made the state the *** of jokes and even provided a plotline for television's "The West Wing."

Gov. Mitch Daniels and businesses argued for a fix, saying the time warp was more than embarrassing because it cost the state money and jobs and created mix-ups over airline flights, delivery times and conference calls.

A law enacted in April required observation of daylight-saving time and compelled Daniels to ask federal officials to determine if time boundaries should be changed.

Daniels did so, but he did not state a time zone preference, something the Department of Transportation — which regulates time zones — said was unprecedented. The department said individual counties had to apply for time zone changes on their own.

A potential checkerboard emerged. St. Joseph County, which includes Notre Dame University and the 106,000 residents of South Bend, wants to shift from Eastern to Central time. The shift would align it with Chicago, about 75 miles to the west, but put it out of sync with Niles, Mich., an Eastern time zone city 11 miles to the north.

Officials in Tippecanoe County, home to Purdue University, cited economic ties to Indianapolis in deciding to stay with that city on Eastern time. But neighboring Carroll and White counties want Central time.

The Department of Transportation hasn't said when it will decide whether to hold hearings on the requests.

"It's a mess that should have never been created," said House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer of South Bend.

Some counties might not get a hearing. The DOT judges requests on factors including whether a change would help business, where area businesses get their supplies, and where the television and radio signals it receives originate.

Margaret Collins, who lives in Buchanan, Mich., just north of South Bend, wants the parts of Indiana that abut Michigan to stay on Eastern time, noting that her community gets its television news from South Bend and that, under Central time, it would be dark at 4 p.m. in the winter.

Also, it's confusing to stop and think what time it is in Indiana, she said.

"It's just very, very inconvenient," she said.

I say set a time zone and then stop changing the clocks for daylight saving time. Set it and leave it alone!

J.P.

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