Stark County residents frustrated about having to leave an hour early when they have an appointment in Bismarck may soon breathe a sigh of relief if a Dickinson commissioner has her way.
Commissioner Shirley Dukart hopes to collect enough signatures to petition the Stark County Commission to make the move from Mountain Daylight Time to Central Daylight Time, she said.
"Some of the people in Dickinson have approached me and told me I need to make that one of my missions, to change to Central Daylight Time," Dukart said. "Every time I'd bring it up everyone seemed interested in me doing that."
Dukart said the move makes sense not only for convenience, but also on an education, government, business, health care and recreation standpoint because the majority of business done outside of Stark County is done with entities located in Central time.
"After 4 o'clock here we can't talk to anyone there or even with the government programs or banks. Everything is east of us," Dukart said. "The concern is because we deal directly with the east so much."
ADVERTISEMENT
A petition is needed to place the issue on a ballot and then the people vote on it. Next, it is presented to the County Commission, which petitions the U.S. Department of Transportation to make the time zone change. Even after that, it still wouldn't be a sure thing.
Mercer County, located northeast of Stark County, successfully voted to make the change from Mountain to Central time 12 years ago, but the DOT turned it down.
Steffes Corp. President Joe Rothschiller backed a similar attempt in 2000, which was voted down 2,668-3,917.
"Whether it's government, education or business, we are losing four hours a day in effective communication," Rothschiller said. "That's an hour in the morning, that's two hours over lunch and it's an hour at the end of the day."
But Brad Fong, owner of Parkway Ford in Dickinson, said a change to Central time could have an affect on his marketplace, which is made up of a lot of southwest North Dakota and parts of eastern Montana.
"If you live in Glendive and it takes you an hour and a half to get to Dickinson plus another hour -- two and a half, that's the same time it takes to get to Billings," Fong said. "And so you might go west instead of east and so on and so forth, because you'll be there at the same time."
Fong said the business could make it work if Dickinson changed to Central time, but if that happened he would prefer the entire state made the move.
Dukart said a county wouldn't have to make the change if Stark County did, but it would make sense.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bowman County Economic Development Director Ashley Alderson said the change would have an impact on Bowman County.
"There's not a lot of main offices located in small towns anymore, everything seems to move to the next biggest city," she said, adding for Bowman County and the surrounding community, that's Dickinson.
"It would be a tough call to make that move," Alderson said. "It'd be difficult, especially for us. Our trade area is not only Dickinson but also South Dakota and Montana, too."
Dukart said she hopes to generate support over the next couple of months and get the petition filled out so the issue can be on the ballot for the next general election in June 2010.
The Herald and the Press are both owned by Forum Communications Co.
