About 40 residents attended a Friday afternoon rally at Gyro Park in opposition of the city’s upcoming residential water meter program. After hearing from a number of speakers, several of the attendees marched through downtown and back. Those in attendance also got a chance to speak with councillor Neil Krog who was at the event.“Residents were invited to support the idea of having a say at what goes in your home,” said Donna Semenoff, one of the organizers of the event. “If you look at the request for expressions of interest, they expect that most of the water meters will go into people’s home.”Semenoff told the Gazette she became involved with the anti-meter group because of her sensitivity to the radio frequency (RF) waves emitted by the meters.A concern that was also brought up at the regular council meeting on March 10 by resident Beverley Tripp.“We’ve been having a challenging time figuring out how to have an open discussion with council,” said Semenoff. “We feel concerned. We’d like to have the opportunity to have open discussions where both sides listen to the other. Different residents would like to have the opportunity to present their concerns or questions and have an open discussion.”Semenoff said that time is so limited during the question period at the end of each council meeting that the group is having to write letters to the editor to get their message out.“Water is so important,” she said. “This is a huge change to how we approach water – monetizing it. At the rally we didn’t focus on the issues of why people have these concerns or questions, some people did bring it up. The idea is that water is important and worth talking about.”Krog told the Gazette that he attended the rally just to hear what people were talking about.“The weather was nice. There was a sound system,” he said. “Some of the same issues were brought up. There was also some new stuff about when does the city water and that type of thing.”Krog said he explained to those he spoke to about why council is doing what they are doing in regards to the water meter installation decision.“It was interesting to see what they were doing and hear their ideas,” he said. “But we (council) still believe what we’re doing is the correct thing for the betterment of the city.”