Time survey

Among the businesses that say the time zone designation will affect their operations, 57 percent say the Eastern time zone is more beneficial, according to a brief filed by the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

However, 57 percent of those businesses that aren't affected by the time zone prefer the Central zone.

An overwhelming majority of those surveyed -- 91 percent -- believe that "it is essential" for St. Joseph and Elkhart counties to be on the same time zone because of the regional economy.

The St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce received 296 responses to its survey distributed to 820 member businesses.

Background

When the Indiana General Assembly voted earlier this year to move the state to daylight-saving time, the legislature asked Gov. Mitch Daniels to ask the federal government to conduct hearings to determine in which time zone the state should be.

Instead of having hearings statewide, the federal agency requested counties that want to switch time zones to file petitions for expedited hearings. The deadline for counties to file the request was Friday. The U.S. Department of Transportation will schedule public hearings to determine whether to approve time zone switches.
By Aleks Tapinsh, Truth Staff

ELKHART -- As the deadline passed, the struggle for a time zone switch is only beginning.

Nineteen Indiana counties asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to have hearings on whether they should move from the Eastern time zone to Central.

However, the time zone switch, or even a hearing, is not guaranteed. The federal agency will grant hearings to those counties that have strong enough cases, as determined by the Department of Transportation.

An agency official declined to say Friday when hearings may be scheduled, or when a decision may be expected.

"We've no timetable," Bill Moslay said. "We'll try to do it as quickly as possible."

Indiana counties may request the change after the Friday deadline -- as they always could -- but they would not receive an expedited hearing or decision.

Counties applying for a change are mostly clustered in Indiana's Northwest and Southwest. They are Benton, Carroll, Cass, Davies, Dubois, Fulton, Knox, Lawrence, Marshall, Martin, Pike, Perry, Pulaski, Starke, St. Joseph, Sullivan, Vermillion and White. Fountain County officials decided Friday to request only a portion of the county switch to Central while the rest of the county remains on Eastern.

Out of the state's urban areas, South Bend is the only city in a county petitioning for the time zone switch. Lafayette, Terre Haute, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne will remain on Eastern, while Gary and Evansville will remain on Central.

To read public opinions submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation, visit the department's Web site at http://dms.dot.gov, then select "Simple Search" and enter 22114 as a docket number.

Copyright © Truth Publishing Co.. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © Truth Publishing Co., All Rights Reserved