Indiana County to Change From Time to Time

Time is on the move in Starke County.

The federal government said Tuesday it is changing the state’s confusing patchwork of time zones at 2 a.m. on today.

That’s when Starke County, in northwest Indiana, will go from Central time to Eastern time, when most of the country moves from Daylight Saving to Standard time.

Eighty-one Indiana counties are now on Eastern time. Ten counties are now on Central time.

The change was favored in a local referendum, supported by much of the Starke County business community. The county’s Board of Commissioners in May, 1990, asked the government to make the move.

“I think most of us are in favor of it because most of us do business in Plymouth or South Bend,” now in a different time zone, said Dawn Bailey, an office clerk at the Starke County Farm Bureau Co-Op grain elevator in Hamlet.

The U.S. Department of Transportation agreed.

“Commerce would be better served if Starke County’s business, financial and educational institutions were placed on the same time as most of their customers and suppliers,” the agency said in a statement.

“We have some people who don’t want it changed and some people who do,” said Ray Short, a local contractor and president of the Board of Commissioners.