Happy Birthday East Ridge!

Melissa Lee jams with her guitarist during the opening act of the City’s 95th birthday party at Camp Jordan Arena, Saturday evening.

The City of East Ridge threw itself a 95th birthday party Saturday evening at the Arena at Camp Jordan that even Dot Guinn would approve of.

City staff greeted people entering the arena with a slice of birthday cake and a drink to put everyone in a festive mood for not one but three different musical acts.

Melissa Lee took the stage at 6 p.m. and played some old time country music. Lee, who has opened for Cole Swindell and Tyler Farr and the Kentucky Headhunters, is particularly noted for her “tribute to the Grand Ole Opry.”

Later in the evening Smith and Wesley took the stage. The band is built around brothers Scott and Todd Smith, whose father, Wes, was a successful area banker.

Confederate Railroad, which just released the CD, “Lucky to Be Alive,” was the main act of the evening. The band’s leader, Danny Shirley, celebrated a belated birthday as he turned 60 on Aug. 12.

This party, like many that the city has put on in the recent past, was free to anyone who wanted to attend.

Janet Middleton, left, and Amanda Miller serve birthday cake to people attending the party, Saturday night at Camp Jordan Arena.

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.