SHOALS — Martin County residents will likely have another chance to voice their opinions on setting their clocks to the Central rather than Eastern time zone.
The Federal Department of Transportation already decided that Martin County, along with Daviess, Knox, Dubois, Perry and Pike, will observe Central time beginning April 2.
But the Martin County Commissioners are willing to get more input on the issue and reconsider their endorsement.
Cary Bledsoe, a representative for Naval Support Activity Crane, spoke on behalf of Crane’s six employee organizations, urging the commissioners during a regular meeting Tuesday to re-petition the DOT, requesting to remain on Eastern time.
While the commissioners want feedback from the five other area counties chosen to make the change before they consider calling on the DOT, they did agree to hold one more public hearing on the matter. The hearing date and time will be set during the next commissioner’s meeting Feb. 14.
Bledsoe presented a letter to the commissioners expressing concerns about how the employee organizations, and at least 600 of their employees who are Martin County residents, would be affected by the time change.
The organizations’ main worries are that following Central time will:
• Complicate business with their many customers on Eastern time.
• Slow productivity and increase absenteeism since 67 percent of NSA Crane’s employees would live in one time zone and work in another (creating a situation where workers with families will likely need more time off).
• Increase the chances of shipments to Crane Army Ammunition Activity being missed or late, reducing the mission-readiness of U.S. operational forces.
• Cause scheduling issues for CAAA employees who work 10-hour days from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., since those workers don’t have the option of a flex schedule.
• Confuse and burden employees going on business trips and the hundreds of visitors who must catch flights to and from NSA Crane for meetings each year, since the Indianapolis and Louisville airports will be on different times.
• Divide the Westgate at Crane technology park into two different time zones, with parts of it in Greene, Daviess and Martin counties.
• Undercut efforts to in-crease the amount of defense and homeland security business since the entities NSA Crane is collaborating with to do so will all still follow Eastern time.
Commission president Mike Dant pointed out that nearly as many county residents who work farther south would benefit from the change to Central.
He requested that Bledsoe get input from the other counties involved and present his findings at next month’s meeting.
Bledsoe was unavailable for comment this morning, but a spokesperson for Crane, Naval Surface Warfare Center, said Bledsoe was speaking for the employee organizations and not for the base commander. The commander has said the base will go with Martin County’s time zone.
While no one from NSA Crane employees attended previous meetings to give their input, the spokesperson said many did not realize that the DOT might allow time change that would divide the base employees.
The majority of the 60 to 65 people who attended both of the public meetings Martin County held last year were in favor of switching to Eastern time, according to commissioner John Collins.
“I personally didn’t want the change, but I based my decision on what the people wanted,” Collins said.
Both Collins and commissioner Kevin Boyd said that they have received several phone calls from residents unhappy about the time change and want to give them another chance to share their thoughts.
In other business:
Sewer project
Commissioners were given an update on the Crane North sewer project and tabled any action until the Feb. 14 meeting.
Appointment
John Collins was appointed to the Southern Indiana Development Commission Board.
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Crane employees ask for Eastern time
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