Daniels weighs in on DOT time zone recommendations

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels asked federal officials Tuesday to keep St. Joseph County in the Eastern time zone and to move three more counties in southwestern Indiana into the Central zone.\nThe U.S. Department of Transportation had recommended that St. Joseph County be moved to the Central zone, as its county commissioners had requested in a 2-1 vote. The federal agency also proposed that Knox, Perry and Pike counties in southwestern Indiana be moved to Central time as they requested, but that three others also seeking a switch -- Daviess, Dubois and Martin -- remain on Eastern time.\nDaniels said those six southwestern counties wanting a change to Central time had expressed a "clear argument and desire to be placed together" and it was essential to grant their wishes to "preserve the unity of this natural region."\nThe governor said that accepting St. Joseph County's request for Central time "means that a unified metropolitan region would be divided, an outcome that virtually no one advocates." Neighboring Elkhart County opted to stay in the Eastern zone, and Daniels had said earlier that for economic reasons a split between the two was unworkable.\nMarshall and Kosciusko counties in that far, north-central region also petitioned for Central time, but federal officials had proposed they stay in the Eastern zone.\nOf 17 counties that made and retained their requests to change to Central time, the transportation department had proposed that only five be moved. Starke County in northwestern Indiana was the other one that got a preliminary nod.\nOf the state's 92 counties, 77 are in the Eastern zone while five in southwestern Indiana and five in the northwest are on Central time.\nU.S. DOT spokesman Robert Johnson said the agency expected to make final decisions in sometime in January. The agency held four hearings in Indiana for public comment and said counties whose commissioners had petitioned for a change still had chances to make their cases.\nDaniels said he agreed with the agency's initial proposal except for the changes he detailed.\nWhen asked how much weight Daniels' recommended adjustments to the agency's initial proposal would be given, Johnson said it would be part of the record along with opinions from congressional members, legislators, local officials and others.\n"We will consider all that input, just as we consider the comments from thousands of Hoosiers on the subject before we come out with a final rule sometime in January," Johnson said.