Kids and grownups get to “Touch a Truck” to celebrate public works in La Crosse

La Crosse city employees from several departments showed off some of their hardest-working machines on Thursday.

The yearly Touch a Truck open house was held on Isle La Plume, where police cars, dump trucks, and construction equipment were on display. Some of the vehicles even were demonstrated, as young people got to honk the horn on a bus, or blow the siren on a police car.

The operator of a large excavator used the machine to pile big boulders into a stack.

Vehicles used by several departments were parked near the MTU bus barn.

Mayor Mitch Reynolds gave a proclamation for National Public Works Week. The mayor remarked that it’s exciting “as a kid, when you walk up to these pieces of equipment, and they’re just so enormous.”

“The big snowblower over here from the airport, that thing is just vast,” said Reynolds. “When you think about how massive that must look to a child…it’s awe-inspiring, it really is.” Reynolds said he’s tried a few of the big rigs himself.

The event was designed to allow city residents up close to public works vehicles they might see every day.