Municipal Court Suspending Cash Payments for Fines

As a temporary measure to combat the coronavirus, East Ridge Municipal Court announced Tuesday that it is not accepting cash payments for fines.

The new policy is an effort to safeguard the public and court personnel from COVID-19, officials said.

What follows is a statement from East Ridge Court Clerk Patricia Cassidy:

As of March 25^th, 2020, the Municipal Court of the City of East Ridge will no longer accept cash payments. If you have a court date in the months of March and April, we have and will diligently try to contact you. If you have not been contacted, please contact our office at 423/867-2701. We will still accept payments over the phone, credit or debit card, and you may also mail a cashier check or money order to the court for payment of fines. We are trying to alleviate any contact with the public that would potentiate the spread of COVID 19.

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.