Christmas Parade Cancelled

The East Ridge Christmas Parade set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening has been cancelled.

East Ridge Police Chief J.R. Reed said early Saturday afternoon that the decision to cancel the parade was due to a near certainty of severe weather coinciding with the event.

“I’ve been monitoring the weather since 9 a.m. (Saturday) morning,” Chief Reed said. “It looks like the weather would move in from 5 to 8 p.m. That is the time the event would be taking place.”

Reed said there are no plans to reschedule the event as surrounding communities have their parades scheduled most every weekend leading up to Christmas.

The East Ridge Christmas Parade has historically been the first holiday parade in the area. It is believed that this is the first time the parade has been forced to cancel.

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.