COVID-19 Hits City's Police Officers and Firefighters

East Ridge firefighters and police officers have been hit hard by an outbreak of COVID-19.

On Monday, City Manager Chris Dorsey confirmed that almost a dozen of our city’s first responders recently contracted the virus.

“Due to unprecedented circumstances surrounding the officer involved shooting and subsequent search on Sunday/Monday, we have had some positive cases in the Fire and Police Departments,” Dorsey said via email. “I cannot comment on conditions but I can confirm that Fire has four positive cases and Police has seven positive cases.”

According to the city’s budget, there are 45 sworn officers on the police force and 24 full time firefighters.

An anonymous source within one of the departments told East Ridge News Online that “staffing issues and overtime is fixing to go through the roof.”

Dorsey said that staffing “at the moment” can be handled with overtime.

“If for some reason it becomes a major issue we will review our options.” he said.”

The source said that city administrators are using the U.S. Department of Labor’s Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

Dorsey said the act works like this. When an employee is off for COVID the City will pay up to 80 hours as outlined in the Act, which applies to Federal Employees and which we are following for the City.

Click on link to read the Act: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employer-paid-leave

The source said that one of the city’s first responders who currently has the virus tested positive in previous months and quarantined for two weeks. The source said, “the issue is that the COVID was contracted while on the job for the City of East Ridge.”

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.