TimeZone

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Commissioners, council set Feb. 6 meeting on time zone issue

A meeting to seek public input on the U.S. Department of Transportation decision to place Pulaski County in the Central time zone will be conducted at 10 a.m., Monday, Feb. 6, during a joint session of the county commissioners and county council.

The U.S. Department of Transportation ruled Jan. 18 that Pulaski and Starke will be two of eight Indiana counties to be added to the Central time zone, putting them on Chicago time year-round beginning April 2.

Commission president Mike Tiede and council president Sam Frain have requested the meeting as a result of numerous complaints regarding the D.O.T. ruling. Both have been in contact with state and federal authorities to determine what options the county has available to it to appeal the decision, if a majority of county residents so desire.

The offices of Gov. Mitch Daniels and Congressman Chris Chicola, along with the DOT in Washington, D.C. have been contacted for assistance.

Pulaski County (time) to join the ‘region’

Under the recent DOT ruling, Pulaski County will join Indiana’s northwest counties in the Central time zone, starting in April. It will be one of 18 of Indiana's 92 counties observing Central time with Chicago year-round.

The US Department of Transportation ruled Jan. 18 that eight Indiana counties will be added to the Central time zone, but denied requests by nine others who wanted Central time. Starke and Pulaski counties in northern Indiana and Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry and Pike counties in southwestern Indiana have been approved for the Central zone.

Why Daylight Savings Time?

The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. Clocks are changed during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.

The federal law that established "daylight time" in the U.S. does not require any state to observe Daylight Saving Time. But if an area chooses to observe DST, it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law. From 1986 to 2006 this has been the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, but beginning in 2007, it will be observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to Daylight Saving Time.

The earliest known reference to the idea of daylight saving time comes from a purely whimsical 1784 essay by Benjamin Franklin. It was first seriously advocated by William Willit, a British builder, in his pamphlet "Waste of Daylight" in 1907.

Daylight Saving Time was first tried in the U.S. during World War I, primarily to save fuel by reducing the need to use artificial lighting. Although some states and communities observed Daylight Saving Time between the wars, it was not observed nationally again until World War II.

So why do we still observe Daylight Saving Time?

A poll once conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation revealed that Americans liked Daylight Saving Time because "there is more light in the evenings/can do more in the evenings."

Daylight Saving Time also saves energy. Studies done by the D.O.T. indicate that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country's electricity usage by a small but significant amount, about one percent each day, because less electricity is used for lighting and appliances.

In the summer, people who rise before the sun comes up use more energy in the morning than if DST was not in effect. However, although 70 percent of Americans rise before 7 a.m., this waste of energy from having less daylight in the morning is more than offset by the energy savings that results from more sunlight in the evening.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided the basic framework for alternating between Daylight Saving Ttime and Standard Ttime, which is now observed in the U.S. But Congress apparently likes to tinker with it. The current system of beginning DST at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and ending it at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October was not standardized until 1986.

Arizona, Hawaii don't want longer summer days
Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii and the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are the only places in the U.S. that do not observe DST, but instead stay on "standard time" all year long. For anyone who's spent any time in the sweltering summer sun in those regions, it's easy to understand why residents don't need another hour of sunlight.

The dawning of DST in Indiana
Until April 2005, when Indiana passed a law agreeing to observe Daylight Saving Time, the Hoosier state had its own unique and complex time system. Located on a time zone border with major cities just across the state line on its western and eastern boundries, the state has always been torn between Eastern and Central time.

And not only has the state been divided between two time zones, but only some counties in the state observed DST while the majority did not. Under the current system, 77 of the state's 92 counties are in the Eastern time zone but do not change to daylight time in April. Instead they remain on standard time all year. That is, except for two counties near Cincinnati and Louisville which do use Eastern DST.

But the counties in the northwest corner of the state (near Chicago) and the southwestern tip (near Evansville), which are in the Central time zone, use both standard and daylight time.

The legislative battle between the old system and DST was contentious and hard-won - bills proposing DST had failed more than two dozen times in the past until DST squeaked through the state legislature in spring 2005. The state remains divided (74 of 92 counties will be in the Eastern time zone) but the old system will end when Indiana joins 47 other states in observing DST in April 2006.

New Federal Law - Springing Forward in March, Back in November
But just months after Indiana got in step with the rest of the country, the federal government announced a major change in Daylight Saving Time. In August 2005, Congress passed an energy bill that included extending Daylight Saving Time by about a month. Beginning in 2007, DST will start the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November.

Thus, DST will be in effect for about eight months in a year, and Standard Time about four months.

Comparisons Around the World
More than one billion people in about 70 countries around the world observe DST in some form. Here are interesting facts about some of these countries:

*Most of Canada uses Daylight Saving Time. Some exceptions include the majority of Saskatchewan and parts of northeastern British Columbia. In the fall of 2005, Manitoba and Ontario announced that like the U. S., they would extend daylight time starting in 2007.

*It wasn't until 1996 that our NAFTA neighbors in Mexico adopted DST. Now all three Mexican time zones are on the same schedule as the U.S..

*Also in 1996, members of the European Union agreed to observe a "summer-time period" from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

*Most countries near the equator don't deviate from standard time.

*In the Southern Hemisphere, where summer arrives in what we in the Northern Hemisphere consider the winter months, DST is observed from late October to late March.

*Three large regions in Australia do not participate in DST. Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland stay on standard time all year. The remaining south-central and southeastern sections of the continent (which is where Sydney and Melbourne are found) make the switch. This results in both vertical and horizontal time zones Down Under during the summer months.

*China, which spans five time zones, is always eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and it does not observe DST.

*In Japan, DST was implemented after World War II by the U.S. occupation. In 1952 it was abandoned because of strong opposition by Japanese farmers.

-Compiled from various reports

Benton, White, Carroll, Cass, St. Joseph, Marshall, Fulton, Vermillion and Lawrence counties, which had requested Central time, were placed in the Eastern zone.

Gov. Mitch Daniels lobbied extensively for the legislation last year that created Daylight-Saving Time for all of Indiana, saying it would eliminate confusion and boost commerce. It gained final legislative passage by a single vote in the House.

The Pulaski County commissioners explain that after the legislation passed, when counties were deciding which time zone they preferred, Pulaski joined all of its surrounding counties in requesting Central time. "When the DOT started rejecting some of these requests, it was assumed they would place Pulaski County with the majority of its neighboring counties," says commissioner Terry Young.

However, several of Pulaski County's businesses, including its two largest employers Galbreath, Inc. and Braun Corporation, requested Central time at DOT hearings last fall.

One of the largest impacts will be on the residents of Monterey and Tippecanoe Township where students attend Culver Schools in Marshall County which will be one hour ahead in the Eastern time zone. The reverse situation will exist for Kewanna students who attend Eastern Pulaski Schools which will be in session an hour later than Kewanna (Fulton County) time. But, if Pulaski should be moved to Eastern time and Starke remains on Central, Rich Grove Township students who attend North Judson-San Pierre Schools will then be an hour ahead of their school time.

Under Central time, Pulaski County will be one hour behind Culver, Plymouth, Rochester, Logansport, Monticello, South Bend, Lafayette and Indianapolis year-round, but on the same time as Rensselaer, Knox, LaPorte and Valparaiso.

Demographics show that 1,113 Pulaski County residents who commute to work in counties east and south will now find themselves one hour behind the time at their workplaces, compared to 1,056 residents who commute to Central time counties (many of whom are already accustomed to the time difference in winter months). A total of 624 workers who commute to Pulaski County to work from Marshall, Fulton, Cass and White counties will now get an extra hour of sleep in the morning. Workers commuting to Pulaski County from Jasper (182) and Starke (273) counties total 455.

The changes take effect April 2, when Indiana and 47 other states observe Daylight-Saving Time. Pulaski County, however, will not change clocks until October.

Residents encouraged
to attend Feb. 6 meeting

The purpose of the joint meeting of the commissioners and council on Feb. 6 is to seek public input and comment as to whether Pulaski County should seek an appeal and reversal of the ruling to place it in the Central time zone.

In either the Central or Eastern time zone, Pulaski County residents will begin observing Daylight-Saving Time in early April and "fall back" in late October. Under Central time, Pulaski County residents will observe the same summer hours has they have been used to, with darkness falling about 9 p.m. But they will lose an hour of afternoon daylight in the winter. Under Eastern time, Pulaski County residents will observe the same winter hours as they do now, but will gain an hour of evening daylight in the summers, with darkness falling about 10 p.m.

County residents are encouraged to attend the Feb. 6 meeting and share their opinions with the commissioners and council, so an informed decision can be made about the future time zone of Pulaski County.

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Petitions for Eastern Time

The Pulaski County Chamber of
Commerce has placed petitions
requesting Eastern time for
Pulaski County at the following
locations:

•Winamac: Good Oil, Town Office
•Francesville: Francesville Tribune
•Monterey:First National Bank
•Medaryville: Town Clerk Office