North Dakota Ponders Question of Time

Rodney Mueller is getting ready to vote on a measure he believes will put time on his side.

Mueller, the road supervisor for Hettinger County in southwestern North Dakota, said Mountain time forces him to watch the minutes tick away as he waits for orders for truck and road grader parts.

Sometimes it’s impossible to get parts delivered the next day when he places orders at 4 p.m. because stores in Bismarck, Fargo and Minneapolis are already closed. They’re all on Central time.

“A lot of times, you have to wait an extra day for your parts,” Mueller said.

The frustration has picked up steam in western North Dakota, where voters in six counties are set for a straw poll June 13 to decide whether they want to set their clocks ahead and embrace Central time.

Such a sweeping desire to vote on a time change is unusual, the U.S. Department of Transportation says. The agency, which is the keeper of the nation’s time, has approved only five time change requests in the last decade, senior attorney Joanne Petrie said.

“These are often very controversial issues,” she said. “It affects people in a very personal way.”

The nine time zones of the United States and its territories are standardized by Congress. The lines were drawn to avoid populated areas, but sometimes they’ve been moved to avoid complication.

The division between Central and Mountain time roughly follows the Missouri River. About three-fourths of North Dakota is in the Central time zone and four counties are split between the two time zones.

Other states know the feeling. South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas all have sections in both Central and Mountain times. The same holds true for states that straddle the Eastern-Central and Mountain-Pacific divides.

Last year, New Mexico lawmakers passed legislation that would put the Mountain state in the Central time zone. They argued the change would cut down on crime and pedestrian accidents as well as boost commerce and trade with Mexico, most of which is in the Central time zone.

Six Counties Are at Mercy of One Another

If voters in North Dakota’s Grant, Hettinger, Mercer, Morton, Sioux and Stark counties endorse the change, county commissions will consider petitioning the Transportation Department. The agency would then hold meetings to get public opinion before making a decision.

Supporters of the change in North Dakota say it’s inefficient for government and business to run on Mountain time because four hours of work are lost each day--at the start, end and two hours over lunch--because of the time difference. Opponents include farmers who work from sunrise to sunset, regardless of the time zone.

The Transportation Department says it will not modify time boundaries for an isolated area. “We don’t like islands of time,” Petrie said. “We wouldn’t want one little county by itself.”

That means the six North Dakota counties are at the mercy of each other. If Stark County approves a time change and its eastern neighbor Morton County doesn’t, there may be no time change.

Local officials say the vote has a better chance in more populated areas such as Dickinson, and in counties that have split time zones.