An Ongoing Issue
From 1966 to 2006, the five southwesternmost counties—Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick—observed Central Daylight Time. The six northern and eastern counties—Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry and Pike since 1982—observed a year-round Eastern Standard Time as did much of the rest of the state.
In 2006, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels pushed through legislation that would put the counties on Eastern Time onto Eastern Daylight Time. This action threw both Southwestern and Northwestern Indiana into chaos as counties started to argue with one another as to whether to return to Central Time or remain on Eastern Time and start observing Eastern Daylight Time. On April 2, 2006, Southwestern Indiana was once again united in one Time Zone, Central Daylight Time.
Not even a month after the change, people began to complain about some of the same problems that people that lived in the original Central Daylight Time counties had been complaining about for years. Most prevalent was the complaint that the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center had become a "time island". The workers' union of the base subsequently petitioned the Martin County Commissioners to repetition for a change back to Eastern Time. The resulting chain reaction resulted in all of the former Eastern Time counties, along with two Central Time counties, Gibson and Spencer, petitioning for a change to Eastern Time.
On September 20, 2007 after only 15 months and only one winter on Central Time the DOT returned only five of the eight applicants to Eastern Time. Gibson, Perry and Spencer counties did not have enough support to return or to go to Eastern Time. However, three of the five counties, Daviess, Knox, and Pike counties there wasn't that much support either, but "convenience of commerce" was given as the reason for their time changes, despite commute patterns into Evansville and the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana plant in Gibson County, the region's largest employer. In Dubois County, there is a heated disagreement between Huntingburg and Jasper over the topic. Most of Huntingburg's industry and economy is geared towards the Central Time Zone where Owensboro, Kentucky and Spencer County, and the Huntingburg area's largest employers, AK Steel and Holiday World are located. Jasper, on the other hand, insists that the majority of its business is aimed at the Eastern Seaboard and it would be in the interest of the county to return to Eastern Time.
So whether it was supported or not, Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, and Pike returned to Eastern Daylight Time on November 4, 2007, once again dividing Southwestern Indiana. The DOT has stated that it will not hold any more hearings on the subject until the fall of 2008.
Read more about this topic: Southwestern Indiana, Central Time Vs. Eastern Time
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