By Lindahl Wiegand, Pilot News Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND - One detail was crystal clear from the hundreds of facts, opinions and reasonings voiced at the U.S Department of Transportation (DOT) time zone hearing in South Bend Monday evening. The counties need to stick together.
The hearing, held at Indiana University South Bend, started at 5 p.m. and continued past the scheduled 10 p.m. stopping point. The fourth and final hearing in Indiana, it was organized in response to the DOT's preliminary decisions at the end of October. About 300 attended.
The DOT ruled that only five of 17 counties that petitioned to switch to Central time would receive approval to do so. This includes St. Joseph, Starke, Knox, Perry and Pike counties.
Stuck in the middle, and still in Eastern time, is Marshall County. Fulton and Pulaski were also denied their request to be in Central time.
Marshall County officials from Plymouth, Culver and Argos attended the meeting together, to show a unified front for Central Time.
The hearing was run by Judy Kaleta from the DOT, who said she was not there to defend the DOT's position, but to clarify responses and ask questions.
“I'm here to gather information. This is an opportunity for you to have a chance to participate,” she said. “We made tentative determinations based on county commissioner petitions. This is tentative, this is not final.”
The petitioning counties' commissioners spoke first, followed by other state and local government representatives and then the public.
Each speaker was given a 3-minute time limit.
Marshall County took the podium early in the hearing. County commissioners Kevin Overmyer and John Zentz and Plymouth Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Doug Anspach spoke on behalf of the whole county.
Overmyer stressed the importance of keeping Marshall and St. Joseph counties on the same time.
“Four thousand people cross the county line between Marshall County and St. Joseph County to go to work,” he said. He also explained the time dilemma that would face school corporations if the counties were split.
“Union-North and John Glenn School corporations have students from both counties,” he said.
Anspach briefly presented a survey conducted by the chamber. Of businesses that responded, 71 percent said that the time zone does have an effect on business.
At the beginning of the hearing, Kaleta went over the criteria the DOT based its initial decisions on. County commissioners that petitioned for a specific time zone were to submit information concerning business receiving and shipping, television and radio broadcasts, newspapers, bus and rail service, airports, employment, economy, school and recreation, health care and religious worship, she said.
Individuals that did not wish to speak in front of the audience and various cameras had the chance to record a video testimony in a separate room. E-mails and letters can also be accepted until Nov. 30.
State Sen. Vic Heinold (R-Kouts), State Rep. Steve Heim (R-Culver) and Plymouth Mayor Gary Cook also spoke on behalf of their constituents.
“You are here to do what the counties have asked,” said Heinold.
“Marshall County is joined at the hip with St. Joseph County,” said Heim.
Cook spoke about the old, natural, time line between Eastern and Central time, which is located east of the Indiana and Ohio border, he said. “We have our ties with Chicago,” he added.