City Gets New Transport Van

Christmas came early … or late, depending upon one’s perspective, to the East Ridge Police Department and the municipal court.

On Thursday morning at City Hall, police and officials from the court took delivery of a new Ford transport van.

East Ridge Municipal Court Clerk Patricia Cassidy said that the 12-passenger van used to ferry prisoners from the Hamilton County Jail and Silverdale to court replaces a 25-year-old relic that was used for that purpose.

“(Officers) deserve this,” Cassidy said of the new van that was purchased from the court budget. “Our guys need good equipment to do their jobs in a safe way.

“That old van was bought used and it was lots of trouble,” she continued. “It wasn’t safe for the prisoners or the officers.”

The 2019 Ford Transit 350 was purchased from Ford of Murfreesboro, officials said. The van was fitted with a state-of-the-art prisoner transport system by On Duty Depot out of Knoxville. The cost of the van and the custom insert was $44,000, which came from court fines paid to the city.

The van has three separate compartments that are capable of carrying a total of 12 prisoners.

Cassidy said that the van will be used by ERPD Reserve Officers Lloyd Chadwick and Doug Roberts to ferry prisoners in custody at the jail and Silverdale for their appearances in municipal court.

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.