This week in East Ridge our emotions were stretched from elation to despair, as we got to see the finest and the worst of what our society is all about.

On Thursday our first responders plucked a homeless man from the rising waters on West Chickamauga Creek. Apparently the man’s wife went to get a cup of coffee after rising from her overnight camping spot underneath the Jack Sharp Memorial Bridge on Ringgold Road. When she came back her husband was gone, swept away by flash flood waters.

The woman called for help and police arrived. Her husband was hugging a tree in the middle of the swollen creek screaming for some help. East Ridge firefighters scrambled its water rescue squad, responding with a flat bottom boat and a raft. In short order, one homeless man, whose life hung in the balance only hours earlier, was hugging his wife and thanking the folks who saved him.

On Friday a call went out from a duplex on Bennett Road. Someone had been shot … please help. First responders got to the residence and a 16-year-old boy was laying in a bedroom suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. The medics, in first responder parlance, “packaged him” to be rushed to hospital. Reports indicate the boy was conscious during this time. Some reports have said that the victim, identified as Monserrate Ferrer, had been placed on life support awaiting his family to return from a vacation to say their final goodbyes. An ERPD press release on Saturday evening said the boy had died.

So, in the course of 24 hours, our city’s first responders had a big win _ plucking a helpless man from almost certain death _ and a big loss.

It’s hard to imagine the emotions of these men. What does it feel like when you take your skills and training and save a life? What does it feel like when you look down into the eyes of a frightened teenager who is terribly wounded and you are doing everything in your power to help, only knowing that he’s not long for this world? 

I will never know. But these folks, the men and women of the East Ridge Fire Department and the East Ridge Police Department live it. Not every day, mind you. But on certain days they have to deal with it. All I can say is “God bless you.”

_ More than 50 people have applied to become our city’s next City Manager. Given the track record of the people who have held that job in the last 10 years, I’m surprised of the number of people clamoring for the chance to sit in the chair. The tenure of a CM in Pioneerville is about as long as a young child’s interest in the care and feeding of a hampster … a couple years.

One would think that the word is out among the fraternity of folks who make running cities their careers. I guess the money (north of $100K) is one aspect. Some candidates, perhaps, know their time here will be extremely limited and are looking at building their resumes. They will move on and point to some major accomplishment they made here, like bringing in a Walmart or automating our garbage trucks, or maybe our next CM will be able to say they instituted a policy of using time clocks to keep track of employees’ hours on the job.

It’s unclear what happens next. I imagine someone, or a committee of people, will winnow down the names of the applicants to a group who will be interviewed. I know the mayor is hopeful that someone can be put in position by early spring. I think that’s optimistic, but who knows, it could happen.

I contend that it doesn’t really matter  who our next City Manager is as long as some members of our City Council continue to defy the City Charter by consistently marching into his/her office and telling them how to run the day-to-day operations of the city.

Let me once again say, the council’s job is to make policy; the City Manager’s job is to implement that policy. To be even more clear: the Council creates a position to add an additional employee in say the codes enforcement department. The Council doesn’t get to pick the person to fill that position. That is the job of the City Manager.

_ Tracy Malone resigned his teaching position and as such his position as football coach from East Ridge High School after an incident involving a scuffle in the weight room. Malone was somehow able to get this football team _ the most successful in the school’s history _ to ignore the distraction of having its stadium condemned and focus on the gridiron. The community was galvanized by the condemnation and the winning ways of the team to organize an alumni association, which by every indication is going to make a big difference going forward.

Malone was obviously the right man at the right time in the right job to help the school, the team and the community move forward. I despair at who will be his replacement.

But, a good friend who is a captain of industry in Atlanta assured me that there are very few people who are irreplaceable. At this point in time, Malone might be one of those people … irreplaceable. 

I want the folks who are going to make the decision on Malone’s  replacement to prove me wrong. Find a man who can communicate with teenagers and get them to focus on a job. Get them to buy into the idea that they are winners, that they can achieve almost anything as a unified group. Find a man who is going to do everything by the book while he’s under the microscope of public scrutiny.

Then get out of his way and let him do his job.

For that matter, I would ask the same of our City Council as they move forward in finding our next City Manager.