You just changed your clocks this weekend, but in St. Joseph County, leaders are thinking about making a bigger switch: to the central time zone.

As you probably know, this has been an issue in the past.

In 2005, the Indiana legislature asked federal officials to look at whether some counties should move from the eastern to the central time zone.

In 2006, the Department of Transportation determined some counties should switch, but not St. Joseph county.

Now, two St. Joseph County Commissioners are trying to convince the DOT they need the change.

It would still be a long time before it happened--the county missed the deadline to petition for the change, so they are asking for an extension.

But they say they have got a petition ready to go if they're allowed to submit it, and a group of businesses to stand behind it.

Some people wish the issue would just stay in the past.

But now, some St. Joe County Commissioners want to talk about the time again.

“Economically it's very clear that St. Joseph county needs to be identified with the economic center of Chicago,” said Commissioner Steve Ross, who along with Commissioner Bob Kovach, sent the letter to the DOT.

Ross says St. Joseph County can thrive as a center for interstate business, by utilizing major byways like the Indiana Toll Road, but says the eastern time zone is a stumbling block.

WNDU talked to about a half dozen shipping companies that agree, but we also talked to Towne Air Freight.

“We've had a lot of different business owners trying to lobby us to their cause, but I don't want to change it,” said Tom Downey, President and CEO of Towne Air Freight.

Even thought they were for the switch 2 years ago.

“Our biggest operation is Chicago, and it would have been great to be in the same time zone as Chicago, but that didn't work… We found a way to adjust, and actually we like it better,” Downey said.

Of course, the issue will, again, bring out some opinions.

“The time difference is a real hassle, I feel we're closer to Chicago,” said Scott Miller, who lives in La Porte County, but works in South Bend, forcing him to deal with the time zone issue every day.

“I'm fine with eastern time. If they push it through to central time, whatever it ends up being people are just going to have to cope,” said Chris Taylor of Mishawaka.

“All I ask is the legislature make a choice, one or the other, and leave it. Either, don't change the clock, change the clock to central, eastern. Make a choice and leave it,” said Bob Walls of South Bend.

Commissioners Ross and Kovach are asking for the extension, while Commissioner Dobson says the other two haven't even consulted him on the matter.

No word yet from the DOT whether they will let the late petition go through.

Even local leaders cannot agree on how to approach the issue.

“The economic viability becomes a prominent issue, and I think that we are prepared to present the best interests of St. Joseph County,” Ross said.

“Our apologies to the community for opening an wound, it should have been done at a later time when we could have been able to critically evaluate this stuff,” Dobson said.

“I think it's an issue that should be dealt with statewide, not at the county level,” said South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke, when asked about the issue.

Luecke also says there are more important issues to address right now, while Ross says he considers this an important issue for the area’s economy.

“There's always other things at hand, this is just one of many issues…Is the general economy of St. Joe County less important than our budget, is it less important than property taxes?,” Ross said.

The DOT looks mainly at commercial issues: traffic patterns, etc; when deciding whether a change is needed.

But many people - including the St Joseph County Chamber of Commerce - say the matter was decided on so recently, it may be too early to bring it back up again - since not much has changed.

The chamber of commerce did a survey of businesses when this issue came up a few years ago, and say it was about a 50-50 split on which time zone would be easier for their operations.

They do not think much has changed since then, but may do another survey if this continues to be an issue.

They also say 91% of those surveyed said they preferred to stay in the same time zone as Elkhart County. Ross says he doesn’t buy into that argument, comparing it “the tail wagging the dog.”

“I think that if we went to central time, you'd see Marshall county going to central time, you'd see a whole corridor wanting to go to central time,” Ross said.