Williams Having First 'Meet the Mayor' on Saturday

Would you like to talk to the Mayor of East Ridge one on one? Saturday you will have that opportunity.

Mayor Brian Williams is making good on a campaign pledge to be “open and responsive in listening to citizens” at his first “Meet the Mayor” event at Local Coffee. The informal discussion with the mayor is slated to begin at 10 a.m. at the coffee shop at 5330 Ringgold Rd.

“This will be an informal meeting with the purpose of citizens engaging in an interactive discussion with me and city administration concerning our city services,” Mayor Williams said via e-mail.

Williams said the purpose of the meetings – and he said he intends to have a series of them – is to provide updates on what is happening in East Ridge in various city departments and answer questions posed by citizens.

Mayor Williams will bring along Assistant City Manager Kenny Custer on Saturday. He said that in February he will have another “meet the mayor” meeting in which Adam Wilson, the Director of Parks and Recreation, will attend and entertain questions and comments.

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.