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Businesses mixed on zones By Max Showalter, Journal and Courier Not all in the business community agree which time zone would be best for Lafayette. While many in manufacturing and research positions seem to prefer remaining in the Eastern time zone, those in agriculture tend to prefer Central. Lafayette biomedical executive Robert Truitt would like to see Lafayette observe Eastern time, as it does now, when the state goes to daylight-saving time next April. Truitt, president and CEO of Ash Access Technology Inc. and HemoCleanse Inc. in Lafayette, said right now Indiana can't claim to be in any one time zone. Half of the year Lafayette's time is the same as Chicago's, and half of the time it's the same as New York's. At least the switch to daylight-saving time in 2006 will solve that problem. "I can remember just recently when we were doing a Web presentation and attendees were on the East Coast, West Coast, in Chicago and in Belgium. Try to explain that to all those people. Unfortunately, 'Indiana time' was interpreted as East Coast time, so we were an hour late getting started." From a business standpoint, he would prefer to operate on Eastern time. Away from work, that's his preference as well because with daylight-saving time it would get dark an hour later in the summer. "As an empty nester without kids who have to go to bed at 8 or 9, I'd like a little more daylight so I can play golf after work," he said. The Indiana Farm Bureau has not taken a stance on which time zone the state should be in -- but that may change this fall. Kevin Underwood, president of the Tippecanoe County Farm Bureau, said the issue could be discussed at the IFB delegate session in late August. The Tippecanoe County Farm Bureau's board of administration already has voted unanimously in favor of Central time. "We felt like -- and I personally feel this way -- that we fit better with the rest of the Midwest than we do with New York and the rest of the East Coast," said Underwood, who farms 1,400 acres in Tippecanoe County. "We'd always be on the same time as the Chicago Board of Trade, a lot of those type of things." Underwood, a member of the Tippecanoe County Council, said Central time works better for family and community activities as well. In summer, the atmospheric conditions from 5 to 6 a.m. are ideal for spraying crops. Under Eastern Daylight Time, that "window" for spraying comes an hour later. That leaves less time for work before afternoon activities begin, he said. "It's very typical for my kids to have a baseball game or a softball game at 5:30 (p.m.)," he said.

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