Dear Mr. Kinney,  Thank you for setting up a webpage devoted to supporting Central time. I want Indiana to be on Central time because I need to be at work by 6:00am and go to bed around 9:00pm. I definitely will not like going to work in the dark year round (I leave for work at 5:30am) and going to bed while it is still light outside during the summer - both of which I will have to do if we are on Eastern time. Also, since I need to go to bed so early, I like having the TV shows on an hour early like they are when we are on Central time. Personal preferences aside, there is a more compelling reason why we should be on Central time. Many Goshen and Elkhart area students from elementary to high school walk or ride their bicycles to school. If we are on Eastern time they will have to go to school in the dark for a greater portion of the school year. Certainly, their safety is more important than having an extra hour of daylight in the evening. With Eastern time it will be dark at 7:00am by mid September. Also, the United States Congress is considering extending Daylight Saving Time from the beginning of March until the end of November. If that happens, it will be dark around 8:30am by the end of November if we are on Eastern time. Since Indiana is often referred to as the "Crossroads of America", Indiana would better serve United States businesses as a whole on Central time. With Central time Indiana would be an hour off 2 times zones (Eastern and Mountain) and 2 hours off Pacific time. With Eastern time Indiana would be an hour off Central time, 2 hours off Mountain time and 3 hours off Pacific time. This idea was expressed by former Indiana Governor Joe Kernin when he was interviewed on WNDU TV several weeks ago.  Finally, most of Indiana is on Central time for a greater portion of the year than it is on Eastern time. For example Indiana is on Central time from the first weekend of April until the last weekend of October, nearly 7 months and on Eastern time from the last weekend of October until the first weekend of March, a little over 5 months. Thanks again for your effort to put Indiana in the Central time zone. Vivian S. Schmucker  Goshen, IN
                     _______________________________________________

It irritates me to no end that my son is forced to go to school in the dark during the winter months. When I went to school in Chicago, I NEVER went in the dark. We were on central standard time. Indiana is too far west to be on eastern time ANY time of the year.
Thank you,  Guss Moberg, Angola, IN
                     _______________________________________________

My wife and I are originally from Elgin, IL where we still have relatives. It is less confusing, especially for my wife's parents who are both in their middle 70's, to contact or visit them when we are both on the same time. We feel we are more connected to the Chicago area more than the New York. Also, we don't want to have daylight until 9:30 - 10:00 pm during the summer. Thank you for your efforts! Ed
                     _______________________________________________

I always thought that the problem with Indiana regarding the time issue was not why we don't spring forward in April, but why we don't fall back in November. With that being said, I am a strong supporter of the central time zone for Indiana. I thought the main reason why Gov. Daniels wanted DST so that the whole state could be on the same time. I understand this would be ideal, but in reality it may not be possible. As we are right now, 7 months out of the year, 87 of the 92 counties in Indiana are in sync. This happens when the rest of the country is on DST. When the country is on standard time, 81 of the 92 counties are in sync. Wouldn't it make more sense to have 87 counties in sync year round as oppose to 81? Those counties near Cincinnati and Louisville should stay in the eastern time zone. The rest of the state should be in the central time zone. Wouldn't we want 2 of the largest metropolitan areas, Evansville and counties near Chicago, in Indiana in sync with the capital city of Indianapolis year round? Indiana is allot closer to Chicago than New York City.  The people who support eastern time zone don't realize that we do not gain an hour of daylight in the evening during DST. There was a recent article in the Bloomington Herald-Times about the history of Indiana time zone. A professor from Indiana University wrote that since Indiana is so far west in the eastern time zone as compared to New York City, we only gain on average 35 minutes of daylight during DST in the evening. If we were on central standard time and spring forward to central DST, we would gain well over an hour of daylight in the evening. Those who support eastern time don't realize that all daylight is not only gained in the evening, but in the morning as well. Central time in the winter will bring sunrise earlier. This is especially helpful to those school children waiting for the school bus in the morning. I work for a company that has customer service phone lines that must stay open until 7:00pm in each time zone in the continental US. During the time when the country is on DST, we have to keep manning the phone until 9:00pm Indiana time to accommodate the folks on the west coast 7:00pm PDT. But during standard time, we have to stay an extra hour until 10:00pm. This is why we want central time so that we are within 2 hours of all the time zones within the continental US. I thought Gov. Daniels said during his campaign last year that he preferred the central time zone for that very fact of being within 2 hours of all time zones.
I always hear people complaining that sporting events such as Monday Night Football start too later at 9:00pm EST. If we are on central time, the game would start at 8:00pm. And as big as Indiana is with basketball, can you imagine if the Indiana Pacers were in the finals and waiting for the games to start at 9:00pm? What about the men's NCAA National Championship game starting at 9:00pm? People could watch the local news at 10:00pm if we were on central time.
People in Indiana should remember that Indiana was originally in the central time zone. People should realize that no matter much daylight we have in the evening, we still have to get up at the same time the next day, not an hour later because of the extra daylight during DST. Geographically, Indiana belongs in the central time zone. It only makes sense.
                     _______________________________________________

Now that we will be observing DST, I would very much like to see as much of Indiana as possible on Central Time. State Representative Jackie Walorski of Lakeville says, "If we do nothing, we'll end up in Eastern Time. If we're proactive and do something, we can probably petition to be in Central Time." Several of the counties are going to go together and give a resolution to the governor in a couple of weeks and say we're petitioning to be on Central time. I really want us to be in this consortium of counties that makes a presentation to the governor, because we have a lot more power when we come together, as separate counties in a region instead of being all by ourselves on the issue..."A "Central Time coalition... plans to make a presentation to the governor  in a few weeks, which is well in advance of the federal hearings that will probably take place this summer." I would like to see as many counties as possible be part of this
consortium or coalition. Because most localities prefer to have their clock read 12:00 at local noon, the earth has been divided up into 24 natural time zones, each 15 degrees wide. This results in approximately the same number of hours of sunlight in the morning (before noon) as in the evening (after noon) in the middle of each zone. The Eastern zone is centered on 75 degrees and the Central on 90. This puts the natural boundary between Eastern and Central time at 82.5 degrees. If you look in the atlas, with Fort Wayne at 85 degrees and Evansville at 87 degrees, you can see that all of Indiana lies well within the natural boundary of the Central time zone, as well as virtually all of Kentucky and Michigan, and the western half of Ohio. Over the years, the statutory boundary has gotten moved quite a bit west of the 82.5 degree line in the U.S., especially north of Kentucky. I would like to see this boundary moved back closer to the natural boundary in Indiana by being drawn up our eastern border, aligning our time with our neighboring states to the west rather than those to the east. Because most of Indiana has been observing Eastern time, and since Indiana is well within the natural boundary for Central time, there is already plenty of daylight in the evening to suit me. Even as we have been from 1966 until now (year round Eastern Standard) we already have anywhere from nearly an hour (November) to nearly two hours (February) more daylight in the evening than in the morning. If Indiana successfully petitions to go to Central time, this would stay the same in the summer. If we continue on Eastern time, the sun would rise in July about 6:40 am and set about 9 pm, giving us only 5.3 hours before noon and 9 hours after noon, or a whopping 3.7 hours more sun in the evening than in the morning. Our clocks would read 1:50 pm at local noon. This just seems excessive to me. I find it helpful to be able to wait until twilight before trying to get the family to bed. I find 8:45 pm already late enough for that in the summer months. It would be even tougher to get children to bed at a decent hour if we had to to wait until 9:45 pm for twilight on Eastern Daylight time. Central Daylight Time, which most of Indiana effectively observes now,  would still give us nearly two extra hours of sunlight in the summer evenings. Central Standard Time in the winter would give us one more hour of morning sunlight than we have now. Having the sun up by 7am instead of 8am in December would be a nice help to dispel the mid-winter gloom.
 Bill Starr   COLUMBUS IN 47203
 Ref: http://www.wndu.com/news/052005/news_41952.php (3 May 2005, Jackie
 Walorski quote)
 Ref: http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~oliver/ast3722/lectures/CoordsNtime/time.htm
 Ref: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/us_tzones.html (timezone history)
 Ref: http://www.mccsc.edu/time.html (more Indiana time history)
As you cover this topic in future articles, following are some of the e-mail addresses and websites at which citizens can contact politicians and bureaucrats who are likely to have some influence on Indiana's timezone.
http://www.dot.gov/ost/ogc/subject/faqs/regulation/timezone.html
 - joanne.petrie@ost.dot.gov { U.S. Department of Transportation }
 Governor Mitch Daniels
 - http://www.in.gov/gov/contact.html
 Indiana legislators
 - http://www.in.gov/cgi-bin/legislative/contact/contact.pl
 U.S. legislators
 - senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov
 - http://bayh.senate.gov/LegForm.htm
 - http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
                             _______________________________________________

We are not farmers and we don’t have kids who need to stand in the dark for a school bus. I do business throughout the state and the country so the most important thing to me is that the entire state is on the same time zone and I would prefer it to be Central. The idea of it still being light at 10pm during the summer doesn’t set well with us. I have spent most of my life in Indiana and think the what we have been doing by not changing clocks has worked just fine with the exception of the statewide confusion with areas who made up their own rules. Since we have already decided to do the daylight saving thing, put us in the Central time zone so we nearly duplicate the way it has been.
Philip Selby
                             _______________________________________________

I am 100% supportive of a move to Central Time for the entire state of Indiana. My husband works for Sallie Mae (one of Indiana's largest employers, headquartered in Reston, Virginia) and he has said the company spends thousands of hours per year dealing with the time zone issue. Our time zone situation in Indiana creates great confusion and hurts the state in any dealings involving national and international commerce.
Indiana is geographically closer to states that observe Central Time and needs to be aligned with these states.
Sincerely
Becky Bechtel
                             _______________________________________________

I have lived most of my life in Indiana, but lived in St. Louis for 15 years. As ANYONE who has lived in the Central Time Zone will tell you, it is the ideal time zone. Geographically, it is the correct time zone for Indiana. I have no kids in school, I don't care if it's light until midnight, I have totally selfish reasons for supporting the central zone. All the television shows are on an hour early, only in the central time zone. This means I can watch the news and David Letterman, and still get enough sleep! Of course, the idiots who run the local tv stations (here in Indpls) will probably just tape-delay the network shows all year long (instead of 6 months as they do now) if we move to central time, negating the best thing about it.
Jan Feuquay
Avon, IN