Belmond firefighters are unhappy with a new city policy regarding the use of all city vehicles, equipment and facilities. About 20 firefighters attended the February 1 city council meeting. The new policy was written after the child of a firefighter fell off a fire truck while playing at the fire station several weeks ago. The child hit her head and was taken by helicopter to a Des Moines hospital. She has since recovered. One section of the new policy makes fire trucks, snowplows, road graders, dump trucks, etc. off limits to everyone except city employees on official city business. This upset many firefighters, who say it has been customary for many years for firefighters to test trucks and to learn about driving the different trucks during their free time on weekends. Often, children were taken on these rides. “Three of us are second generations,” said one fireman. “My dad used to give us fire truck rides every Sunday afternoon when I was a kid. If I hadn’t gone down to the fire station as a kid, I might not have become a firefighter. I want that for my kids, too.” (Fire truck rides during parades and on Fire Prevention Week are still allowed under the new policy because those events are public.) “I’ve talked to all of you council members privately, and we ask that no changes be made to the prior custom,” said Fire Chief Dean Adcock. “We’ve always had an open policy,”?said retired chief Wayne Bruggeman. “The only time guys get experience driving is when they take a truck out on their own time. I hate to restrict volunteers bringing their families down to the station. If you do that, nothing is going to get done over there.” Adcock added, “The only time some guys can get down to the station is when they bring their family with them. They get familiar with the equipment and how it functions. We are not a career department that has shifts for training. We have one training meeting a month, but that isn’t enough, so guys have to learn on their free time.” “We are a small department,” said one firefighter. “When a call comes in, we never know who will show up.