CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) —  Chattanooga is getting a new music festival down on the river in 2025.

The “Smart Music Festival” will be a 3-day event at Ross’s Landing.

Organizers are building is as a world class E-D-M and pop music festival.

It will debut on May 23^rd… similar to the old Riverband dates.

Organizers say they will have four stages… plus 30 food trucks and tents.

They are taking vendor applications now.

You can learn more about the Smart Music Fest online and on social media.

Smart Music Fest |

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has awarded a total of $276,090 in grants for stream and wetland restoration.

$245,000 of that grant money will go toward Hamilton County Development Services for a project at Stringers Branch.

The rest, $31,090, will go toward enhancing water quality in Stringers Branch with the help of nonprofit group, WaterWays.

“Hamilton County is rich in natural resources, and it is important for Tennessee to invest in our streams and waterways to preserve these natural resources. I appreciate TDEC for these grants to clean up Stringers Branch, enhance water quality, and make improvements in the City of Red Bank,” said Senator Bo Watson.

The project at Stringers Branch will be shaping the concrete channel on Stringers Branch to make it more natural.

Doing so will create sloping banks and a stream bed habitat.  This project will help restore that channel, along with adding 50 feet to the stream.

WaterWays is going to help better the water quality.  They plan to remove litter and invasive species, along with native planting, and streambank stabilization.

They’re also planning to monitor the stream to see how the project is effecting it.

“This grant will restore Stringers Branch to a place citizens can be proud of and enjoy. I’m thankful this area will be protected and maintained for many years to come. I thank TDEC for their commitment to ensuring Tennessee’s ecosystem will always be taken care of,” stated Representative Patsy Hazlewood.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly is asking the community to participate in an online survey about the next Chief of Police.

The three-question survey asks Chattanooga residents to rank qualities in a new Chief of Police that they find most important such as experience, community-oriented, leadership skills, and more.

The survey also asks community members to rank areas in which the next Chief of Police should focus on within our city like building strong relations with citizens and crime prevention.

“As we move through the interview process for our Chief of Police candidates, we want to hear from all parts of Chattanooga.  I’m asking every Chattanoogan to spend about three minutes to ‘Make your voice heard!’ by taking our brief survey that will help inform the selection of our next Chief of Police.”  Mayor Tim Kelly stated.

Go to chattanooga.gov/chief to fill out the survey, and let your voice matter in the process of selecting a new police chief.

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) —  Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) deputies were involved in an early morning pursuit involving four juveniles.

At 2:50 a.m., deputies noticed a vehicle with a broken driver’s side brake light that failed to stop at the intersection of Highway 58 and Oakhill Road.

After attempting a traffic stop, the Ford Escape turned onto Bellbrook Drive.

The vehicle came to a stop, and four juvenile occupants exited the vehicle, leading deputies on a foot pursuit.

Deputies were able to apprehend the driver, however the other three occupants were not found.

The juvenile was found with a stolen firearm on him.

3.5 grams of suspected marijuana, an open alcohol container, and a bent screw driver were found inside the vehicle.

The Sheriff’s Office said bent screw drivers are often used to break into vehicles.  Deputies have been patrolling this area more frequent due to the increase of vehicle break-ins and auto theft.

After confirming with the drivers mother, he had permission to drive the vehicle, as he was suppose to be getting food.

The 17-year-old suspect was taken into custody and charged with the following:

• Theft of Property – Firearm (Felony)
• Evading Arrest (Misdemeanor)
• Unlawful Possession of a Firearm (Felony)
• Possession of Alcohol by a Minor (Misdemeanor)
• Simple Possession of Marijuana (Misdemeanor)
• Stop Sign Violation (Misdemeanor)
• Light Law Violation (Misdemeanor)

He is currently being held at the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Pedestrian safety has a continuing topic of conversation in Chattanooga.

This especially after a fatal incident on Frazier Avenue that killed a mother and her baby.

The city since has been awarded the SMART Grant, which is two million dollars from the U-S Department of Transportation made available by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

That money will be put into a mobile research unit in which they gather important data to keep our roads safe.

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly remarked, “Across the country and here in Chattanooga as we know, we have not done a good enough job on pedestrian safety. It is one of the metrics that we track that is going in the wrong direction.”

Thursday marked the beginning of the implementation of the project funded by the SMART Grant.

Led by the UTC Research Institute, their goal is to analyze the relationship between drivers and pedestrians, and identify danger spots.

They also would use the mobile units to alert drivers to a potential collision. 

Dr. Mina Sartipi, director of UTC’s Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, said, “Understanding what is causing it using this technology and also the connectivity that we talked about, would be alerting the vehicles and also the pedestrians at the same time.”

“We throw out all of the raw data, so no camera, no lidar, no thermal camera is collected, what we get out of that is something saying hey, a car drove down this lane at this speed at this time,” said Austin Harris, Director of Operations and Chief Engineer for UTC’s Research Institute. “Same thing with pedestrians, and when you can put that into a big picture over time you can start to understand how pedestrians and vehicles in the roadway.”

CARTA will also be using this data to try to keep their buses on schedule. 

“The vehicles are now able to communicate with things around them like intersections and the timing of traffic signals, and so the buses will have the opportunity to have priority access allowing them to move more quickly. At the same time, we see we have passengers getting on or off the bus, the traffic lights can adjust for that as well,” said CARTA CEO Charles Frazier.

Leaders hope this technology will be implemented in more spots around the city.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF) — The Bradley County Sheriff’s Office have arrested two males in connection to a church burglary.

On July 23, 2024, deputies responded to a burglary alarm at 1720 Perry St. SE, The Avenue Church in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Upon arrival, deputies discovered the church had been previously broken into during the last two nights.

After investigating, suspects were identified as Joshua Rutherford and Casey Rogers.

Bradley County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant for a nearby residence and found items that were missing from the church.

Rutherford and Rogers are in custody.

Rutherford is being charged with two counts of burglary and theft over 2,500 dollars, while Rogers is being charged with one count of burglary and theft over 2,500 dollars.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Chattanooga Police responded to a person shot call late Wednesday night.

The call came in at 11:55 p.m. and was reported to be in the 400 block of North Hickory Street.

Officers were dispatched to a local hospital where the victim was driven for treatment.

The 62-year-old male had non life-threatening injuries from the incident.

He reported he was shot during an argument with his ex-girlfriend.

Officers were able to locate the suspect at the 400 block of North Hickory Street.

61-year-old Sandra Sharp was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

Sharp is being held at the Hamilton County Jail and Detention Center.

TENNESSEE (WDEF) —  Senator Marsha Blackburn says her “Kids Online Safety Act” is finally coming up for a vote this week.

The Senate is scheduled to consider her bill that would require social media companies to ensure that children are protected from negative content.

She introduced the bill after a series of hearing that included parents and the heads of social media companies.

“Last Congress, Senator Blumenthal and I introduced KOSA following disturbing reports that Meta leadership knew its platform Instagram is toxic for teenage girls–causing rising rates of eating disorders and mental health issues–but downplayed these harms in public,” said Blackburn

The vote has the potential to come in Wednesday July 25 or Thursday July 26.

If it passes the Senate, the bill still must go to the Republican controlled House and then to the President’s desk.