HAMMOND, Ind. (CBS) -- In just a few months, the City of Hammond, Indiana will close all its gas stations between midnight at 5 a.m.
As CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported, the ordinance was passed with the strike of a gavel at a heated Hammond City Council meeting Monday night. It goes into effect Nov. 1.
Effective that date, all 37 gas stations in Hammond will close during that five-hour overnight period. The ordinance passed the City Council 7-2.
The plan would allow gas stations to file for an exemption. But it is the approval process for that exemption that has some gas station employees worried about their job security.
Meanwhile, the main concern behind the ordinance revolves around crime.
"Right now, every time there's an incident in the middle the night, we have to deploy multiple officers," said Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. "I have 14 police officers working at 2 in the morning, and five or six of them will be tied up at a gas station."
Mayor McDermott supports the plan – calling it a necessary move to improve public safety.
Colleen Kozubal gets off work around the time the gas stations would close.
"I get off around 11 or 12 at night, and my girlfriend, actually - my coworker - stopped here one evening, and her car got surrounded," said Kozubal.
Other neighbors worry about people passing through.
"I'd hate to see people get stuck, just in case somebody is traveling and gets off and needs to have Hgas," added Hammond resident Annette Nordgren.
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