Sunday brings Daylight Saving Time back to Indiana on Sunday, reminding us that the welcome warm breezes of spring cannot be too far behind. So remember on Saturday night to set you clock forward one hour; an hour will be lost, but you’ll enjoy it in the evening when the sky remains light one hour longer.
You might remember as well those crazy days of time early in the administration of former Gov. Mitch Daniels when all of Indiana switched to Daylight Saving Time, while stumbling along with Indiana’s confusing time zones. Most of Indiana is and was, oddly enough, in the Eastern time zone. That is so that Indianapolis can be on the same time as New York City and the East Coast. They see it as an economic advantage. Meanwhile, a few counties in the Evansville area and in Northwest Indiana are and were on Central time.
At any rate, counties just outside the immediate Evansville region decided to try Central time in 2005, to be more in step with Evansville than with New York City. It quickly failed, as folks in those counties, among them, for example, Pike and Daviess, went scurrying back to the Eastern time the following year.
For those of us who had campaigned for years to see Indiana do the logical thing and wed in the Central time zone, it was disappointing, and pretty much the end of the Central time campaign, at least in deep Southwestern Indiana.
We were reminded of that mess this week when the Indianapolis Star newspaper reported that State Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, had filed a bill asking for a summer legislative study on the Central time zone issue and possibly putting all of Indiana in Central. According to the Star it went nowhere, but apparently a similar resolution is expected for the House.
Meanwhile, a determined group known as the Central Time Coalition pushes on. According to their website, the coalition promotes the allocation of available sunlight and darkness “in a manner that provides the greatest peace, safety and well-being to the citizens of Indiana.” They support Central Standard time in the winter and Central Daylight Time for the remainder of the year.
In fact, the coalition has asked that the current General Assembly do as Delph proposed and establish a legislative study committee to conduct an objective evaluation of the consequences of the Eastern and Central time zone designation as they affect all Hoosiers.
From that same website, we would note that in August the Indiana Farm Bureau voted to support Central time for all of the state. It explained that Indiana agriculture and agribusiness interact with the Chicago commodity market and with suppliers located primarily in the Central time zone.
Now that makes sense, at least a whole lot more sense than folks in Southern Indiana wanting to be on the same time as New York City.