Photo by Barrie Erskine H O T A IR IN D E E D : Hot Air Balloon pilot Tom George prepares the Bell Act Media Yellow Pages Balloon at Glen Abbey Golf Course Monday morning to promote the upcoming Bell Canadian Open. See Sports for story. becoming necessity for Halton Police A dditional 4 un its will help with traffic du ty s a y s ch ief Halton Regional Police are now four motorcycles stronger thanks to Thursday's approval by the Police Services Board. The purchase order will be for a quartet of new Harley-Davidson police package motorcycles, which will bring the force's total to five bikes. "With the increase in fatal and per sonal injury collisions the motorcy cles are a welcome tool for the traffic officers," said Chief Ean Algar. 'They will be used to address the needs of the motoring public and the communi ty " Two of the motorcycles will be assigned to the Public Safety Unit at headquarters and three will be avail able to the Districts. Given the tremendous increase in Halton's traffic volumes, police main tain that the motorcycles will allow officers to better respond to emer gency calls and clear traffic during gridlock situations. Motorcycles are also less conspicu ous than cruisers and are an ideal vehicle for intersection and radar enforcement assignments. E X P R E S S HOTKL&'lOrrtS M o d e m H o t e l kvule Beaver ^ ftn'ord' CwtHttutHty Theatre for Shrimps! E n t e r t a i n m e n t Town honours Perkins family Focus A Metroland Publication Vol. 37 No. 95 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11,1999 Motorcycles Police pool resources to fund $ 16-million info system Halton Regional Police were among 10 Ontario law enforcement agencies to jointly sign multi-mil- lion dollar contracts this week to provide them with a Common Information Management System (CIMS). The contracts total $15,800,000 with Litton PRC. The participating agencies will now be able to share development costs for a common information management system through a partnership that will reduce costs and enable them to share information with each other as needs arise. The signing took place Tuesday at Peel Regional Police headquarters. Containing traditional core components of an automated computer aided dispatch and records management system, CIMS will be an integral part of the agencies' use of technology. The new system will help improve delivery of policing services in a variety of ways. The time and effort officers spend entering reports, preparing court documents and searching for information will be reduced, for example. There will also be an open communications net work for data-sharing between police forces plus support for implementation of mobile workstations in police vehicles. The system will also support delivery to officers of such complex data as images of mug shots, fin gerprints, documents, photographs, full motion video and audio information. In addition to Halton, the participating agencies include Durham, Hamilton-Wentworth, Niagara, Peel and York Regional Police Services plus the PRIDE Police Services - Waterloo, Brantford, Guelph and Stratford. Fo rd & H a rle y -D a vid so n team ing up The Ontario Truck Plant in Oakville will be producing a special limited edition 200 Harley-Davidson pickup truck that will have a similar sound to the motorcycle. Special pick-up to be made in Oakville will celebrate anniversary of both firms...and the truck will sound well, like a Harley... Ford of Canada's Ontario Truck Plant (OTP) will be producing a spe cial limited edition 2000 Harley- Davidson F-150 pickup truck. The truck was unveiled Monday at South Dakota's 1999 premier annual motorcycle event, the Sturgis Rally & Races. Annual production and price are to be announced later. This all-black truck, with distinc tive Harley-Davidson orange pinstrip- ing and chrome accessories, is a restyled and customized version of the Ford F-150, Canada's best-selling nameplate. 'The decision to build this unique, exciting new product here is recogni tion by Ford of our build quality and the skill level of Ontario Truck Plant workers," said Charles Shortridge, OTP Manager. "We already manufac ture the SVT F-150 Lightning pickup, which has created a lot of excitement among truck enthusiasts across North America." The new production will be inte grated into existing operations, with no anticipated employment increases required. The Ontario Truck Plant employs 1,230 hourly and 110 salaried employees and produces 54 F-Series trucks each hour. The new truck is the first product developed under a five-year strategic alliance announced in March by Ford Motor Company and Harley- Davidson Motor Company. "Ford's F-series pickups have been the number one nameplate in Canada for 33 consecutive years," said Rob Marner, Ford of Canada's Truck Division Advertising Manager. 'This truck melds the 'Built-Ford-Tough' durability of the F-150 with the almost mythic popularity and appeal of the Harley-Davidson brand name." "Both companies produce exciting vehicles with both power and pres ence. This is truly a marriage of pow erhouse brands." One Ford employee in Oakville who is particularly happy that the new Harley-Davidson F-150 will be built locally is Cathy Goodale-Brown. Not only is the F- 150 her "ride of choice", she is also an enthusiastic Harley-Davidson owner and Activities Director of Toronto's Harley Owners Group (HOG), the largest chapter in Canada. When the hourly Windstar plant employee heard the truck would be built next door to where she worked, she volunteered to help in any way she could. She was in Sturgis as part of the launch team. 'This truck combiiies two of my passions in life - my truck-of-choice (See 'Truck' page 2) today*$paper Editorials._____________________ A6 Focus______________________ B1 Entertainment........... ................B4 Classified__________________ C4 Business.__________________ C8 Sports._______________________ D1 U p d a t e . . . . . . -- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . - D 5 Automotive..____ ................-- D6 For Home Mnrf. The Boy, The Brick, Business Depot, Helton Life, Gusnfian Drugs, Oi'si Sushi Japanese Restaurant, Ginos Pine, Future Shop, Retail Drugs C anadian Publications M ail Product A greem ent #435-201 Blood donor clinic at River Oaks today A blood donors clinic will be held today at the River Oaks Recreation Centre. The clinic will run from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Blood is needed to help accident victims, cancer and leukemia patients, organ transplant recipients, people with blood disorders and those under going surgery. Health individuals age 17 to 70 year are urged to attend. The Toronto Centre for Canadian Blood Services, which includes the Oakville area, is responsible for col lecting, processing and distributing blood and blood products for 59 hos pitals in Toronto and Central Ontario. j Unwanted Hair a Problem? Have It Rem oved W ith Laser Hair Removal LlLIANNh 9 0 5 -8 4 9 -7 0 9 3 139 T homas Street • Downtown Oakville I P eterW o™ 1111 1 N V E S T M E N T S RETIREM EN T PLANNING SPECIALISTS Free C o n s u l t a t io n 842-2100 P e te r C. 'Vttetson U B JL , C FJ», RJFJ*. At,4 r i t Additional 4 units will help with traffic duty says chief Modem Hotel Theatre for Shrimps! Town honours Perkins family WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11,1999 Police pool resources to fund $ 16-million info system Ford & Harley-Davidson teaming up Blood donor clinic at River Oaks today Unwanted Hair a Problem? Laser Hair Removal RETIREMENT PLANNING SPECIALISTS Free Consultation 842-2100