Mayor's Report
Bidding a fond farewell to Sgt. Paterson
By Marolyn Morrison

I would assume that most of you know or have heard of Sergeant Bob Paterson. Bob is one of the familiar faces of the Ontario Provincial Police in Caledon.

I believe he was our first official "Community Policing Officer."

I first met Bob in 1995 when he was a Constable in Caledon East. It was when we were preparing to launch the Road Watch program in Caledon. He was very involved with the committee and was one of those people who can pull an event together, right down to the very last detail.

I ran into Bob off and on during the next year or so and then I decided to take the Road Watch program outside of Caledon to other communities and Bob was the constable who went with me at the beginning. I got to know Bob very well traveling to many municipalities with him, in the evening through snow storms, rain and sleet. We also had some good weather to drive in. We had wonderful conversations about community, Caledon and our families. It didn't take me very long to realize that we had a real quality person in our police service. He has a wonderful value system and a great deal of integrity but he could get tough when he needed to.

Bob was promoted to Sergeant and was put in charge of the Bolton office including Community Policing for Caledon.

I remember receiving a call from Bob about five years ago, and he asked me if he could come and present an idea that he had to help senior drivers. I listened to his presentation and made arrangements to get feedback from Peel Health and from there he was off. We made a contact at CARP and went down to Toronto together to present to that organization and they came on board to be a major sponsor of the Drive Wise program. It happened all because of Bob!

Another time we were talking about the wonderful residents in the Town of Caledon and he had become friendly with Sid and Mary Coburn from Caledon Village, who were good friends of mine also. Since Sid used to work on Indian motorcycles in the '30s Bob made arrangements for Sid, Mary, myself and him to go to General Headquarters in Orillia for a tour, including the museum with the same bikes that Sid used to work on. What a thrill he gave to this wonderful gentleman and his wife. He gave Sid an OPP hat and boot guards and Sid had his picture taken on the Indian motorcycle with his OPP hat on.

This is just a small amount of what Bob has done in our community that makes him stand out. I am writing all of this because Sergeant Bob Paterson has transferred to Orillia, General Headquarters as one of their communications specialists. He was front and centre for us in communications when he was in Caledon and he has been doing a wonderful job for General Headquarters in Orillia for approximately a year and has decided to take the job there.

Bob will be very much missed in Caledon, but I am sure that he will leave his mark on Orillia also. We wish him much success in the future and thank him for his wonderful contributions to the Town of Caledon and our residents.