Chauncey Edges Cassidy in Court Clerk's Race

East Ridge has a new Municipal Court Clerk and a new City Council member.

Misty Chauncey, a newcomer to politics, edged three-term incumbent Patricia Cassidy to become only the second elected Municipal Court Clerk in the city’s history. The final tally saw Chauncey with 2,617 votes to Cassidy’s 2,544.

Robert “Bob” Gilreath, in his fourth run for a seat on the dais, was elected with 1,949 votes. He will be sworn in along with David Tyler, who was returned to office for his second term. Tyler was the largest vote-getter with 2,027 votes.

Gilreath, a retired contractor, edged Marty Von Schaaf by 39 votes.

Esther Helton-Haynes is going back to Nashville to represent the 30^the district in the State House. Helton-Hayne, a Republican, garnered 51 percent of the vote edging Democrat Art Rymer by a couple percentage points.

East Ridge Mayor Brian Williams, who ran unopposed, will serve a third term.

East Ridge voters also voted overwhelmingly for a charter amendment that prohibits the city from subsidizing health benefits for city council members.

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.