Memorial Day Observance Set for Monday

UPDATE: East Ridge News Online has been informed by Reverand and City Chaplin Denny Manning that he will be doing the invocation and pledge of allegence at Monday’s Memorial Day Ceremony.

American Legion Post 95 will spearhead the annual East Ridge Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday.

The event is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at Pioneer Frontier Park next to City Hall on Tombras Avenue. This annual tradition honors those that have served in any branch of the military who died while on active duty.

The keynote speaker this year will be Congressman Chuck Fleischman. Post 95 Commander Larry Palmer will emcee the event, with Mayor Brent Lambert being a guest speaker. The posting of the colors duties will be performed by the American Legion Post 95 Color Guard, and music will be provided by the American Legion band.

During the ceremony The 2^nd Annual Lester Norton Award for Patriotism will be presented to an East Ridge citizen who goes above and beyond to display his patriotism daily.

City offices and non-essential services, which include the City Library, will be closed in observance of Memorial Day. Sanitation services will run as regularly scheduled.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.