WALKER, Mich. — Officers at the Walker Police Department have been busy searching through the archives.
But they aren't looking for any evidence to support an investigation. Rather, they have been digging into storage to dust off some old downhill derby cars — evidence of fun memories from back in the day.
"In the late 90s, early 2000s, as part of the Walker Summer Series — different events that the city of Walker hosted throughout the summer — they did a downhill derby soapbox race," said Mitch Harkema, an officer with Walker PD.
Several local organizations and agencies participated in the event. In fact, Harkema said the police and fire departments formed a bit of a rivalry (a lopsided one at that, apparently, considering the fire department won most of the time).
"We got the community together. We found some appropriately qualified children pilots to put these in (and) we shoved them down a hill to see who could go the fastest," he said.
Those derby cars haven't seen the light of day for about 20+ years. They are not coming back to the surface for any race, although Harkema wouldn't be upset if that were the case.
“We're kind of twisting the mayor's arm a little bit here in Walker to see if maybe we can bring that back in a year or so for a throwback event," he said.
Instead, they will be one of the many featured items on display during the Kent District Library's next Touch a Truck event in Walker, right alongside fire trucks, police cruisers and more.
Amber Elder, the library's programming specialist, said, "There's going to be a lot of big trucks from the city that are going to be at the library so that kids can touch them. Literally, that's the name of the program. Also, one of those things is going to be the snowplow. Kids are going to be able to dip their hands in paint and then put their handprints just on top of the snowplow. So it'll be a really cool event."
The event will take place on July 19th from 10-11:30 a.m. at the KDL Walker Branch. Anyone and everyone is invited to attend!