Published: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 -- The Truth

Elkhart County's three commissioners sought input from the Elkhart County Council on what direction they should go in the thorny time-zone debate.

The council's response was, not surprisingly, mixed.

It is in situations like these that ordinary citizens look to their elected representatives for leadership and it looks like, finally, the commissioners will deliver a measure of it.

At Saturday's county council meeting, the commissioners said they will study the degree to which Elkhart County is aligned with Eastern time (New York time) and Central time (Chicago time). As of today, the county will have exactly one month to decide whether to petition the U.S. Department of Transportation to move from our current time zone, Eastern, to Central.

With three of Elkhart County's neighbors, St. Joseph, Kosciusko and Marshall, leaning toward Central, that may force our hand if we wish to remain aligned with those counties -- a sentiment we've heard no one dispute.

Our editorial on Sunday ("Make the case for Central," Aug. 14) criticized the commissioners for inaction on the time-zone issue. Written on Friday, the editorial did not take into account the developments at Saturday's council meeting. The commissioners deserve to be acknowledged for the steps they say they are now willing to take.

Time -- no pun intended -- is of the essence. The deadline is Sept. 16. Elkhart County needs to be prepared to join our neighboring counties to petition the federal government to be moved to Central.

As outlined on Sunday's editorial page, there's ample evidence to back up Central time.