TDEC to Hold Public Hearing at ERHS on Thursday

The Tennessee Department of of Environment and Conservation is having a public hearing at East Ridge High School on Thursday, Sept. 19, officials announced earlier this month.

The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. with an informational session, followed at 6:30 by public comments.

The purpose of the hearing is to inform the public and provide an opportunity to comment on water quality issues that would occur from the TDOT I-75/I-24 reconfiguration project.

According to an application TDOT submitted to the TDEC’s Division of Water Resources, the construction project would have a permanent impact on 9.38 acres of six wetlands, 2.23 acres of impact to five wetlands, and two stream crossings resulting in about 580 linear feet of permanent impact.

According to government officials, TDOT would compensate the wetlands impact through partial on-site mitigation, and by purchasing 28.4 wetland bank credits from the Sequatchie Valley Wetland Mitigation Bank.

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.