Daylight-saving time debate alive in 17 Indiana counties

Seventeen of Indiana's 92 counties still have no idea what time it will be when Indiana begins observing daylight-saving time in April. \nIn response to the Department of Transportation's deadline of Sept. 16 to petition for a time zone change, 17 counties in the state requested to move from their current time zone of Eastern to Central. If these requests are granted, it would place 27 counties in the state on a different time zone for the entire year. Ten counties currently observe Central Daylight Time and are aligned with the Central time zone. For Bloomington residents, the potential switch means neighboring Bedford and Lawrence County could be in a different time zone and an hour behind Bloomington's time year-round.\nAccording to the DOT, which regulates U.S. time zone boundaries, in a letter dated Sept. 15, Lawrence County petitioned to switch from the Eastern Time zone to the Central Time zone along with 16 other counties in the state. These petitions stem from the passage of Senate Bill 127 in April, which stated Indiana would begin observing daylight-saving time in 2006. \nIn the Monroe County letter dated Sept. 16, the county stated it would like to remain in the same time zone as Marion County, citing economics as a primary reason. Monroe and Marion counties were among the 60 counties in the state that didn't request a switch to CDT. Fountain and Benton counties had requested a switch, only to withdraw their request a few weeks later.\nIris Kiesling, the only Monroe County commissioner who voted against the county's decision, said her reason for dissent was because the county's requests were not explicit enough.\n"(Monroe County) saying that we want to go with Indianapolis time is not really saying what we want to do," Kiesling said. "We're just giving in to Indianapolis." \nThe letter went on to state that many residents and businesses of Monroe County conduct business in Marion County, television broadcasts predominantly come from Marion County and 25 percent of the labor force that works outside the county works in Marion County. Furthermore, the letter cited IU athletics as a major economic boost to Monroe County and many patrons attending these athletic events come from Marion County. \nWhen asked for the University's stance on Monroe County's decision to remain on time with Marion, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre, citing conversations with IUB Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis' staff and IU Director of Community Relations Kirk White, said in an e-mail, "All think it is best that IU remain on the same time with Indianapolis. Faculty and staff in Bloomington interact on a daily basis with colleagues at IUPUI and in state government offices -- all in Indianapolis. If we were on different times, these interactions would be more complicated."\nLawrence County requested in its letter to the DOT a move to the Central Time zone because "every square foot of Indiana is located in the Central Standard Time zone as defined by the international agreement that established the global time zone system." \nThe letter stated Indiana is currently the only state that falls entirely within one time zone, yet was divided county-by-county into two time zones by the federal government. \nJeff Sagarin is a Bloomington mathematician and statistician, an IU alumnus and an infamous Central Time advocate. He agrees with Lawrence County's petition. \nAccording to data he has compiled from the U.S. Census Bureau, every square inch of Indiana belongs in the Central Time zone. He said the Central Time zone was set up to center around a longitude of 90 degrees, with a range for the Central time zone from 82.5 degrees W to 97.5 degrees W. Indiana lies between the longitudes of 87.48 W degrees for Evansville and 84.89 degrees W for Richmond. This is within the defined Central Time range, he said.\n"Anyone who doesn't see that we belong on Central Time is either crooked or stupid," Sagarin said. "There is no other way."\nThe political decision concerning Indiana's time for these 17 counties requesting a switch now lies with the DOT. \nBill Mosely, a public affairs specialist with the department, said the next step -- should the counties' petitions have merit -- would be to issue a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking." \nOn Tuesday, the DOT OKed notices for five of the counties that had sought a Time zone change to Central time while also proposing to keep 12 of the counties that requested a change a change in the current Eastern Daylight zone. With this announcement, the DOT also announced public hearings on the issue would take place in November in Jasper, Ind., Logansport, Ind., South Bend and Terre Haute. The time zone fate of these 17 counties will come about through these hearings. Following hearings, the DOT will make its recommendation regarding these requests. \nEven though the DOT has initially proposed to keep 12 counties in the Eastern Time zone, there is a chance the counties' requests could be honored. When asked what she thought the DOT would do with the 17 counties requesting the change, Kiesling said, "The DOT is going to have some fun." \nRead part three of this four-part series tomorrow for the arguments and realities of Eastern and Central time.