Covid sees tweak at council facilities
With active cases of Omicron now isolating in the community, the Ka¯ piti Coast District Council is not leaving anything to chance and is implementing some temporary changes across its community facilities to keep staff and customers safe.
Acting chief executive Sean Mallon said: ‘‘We’ve been very upfront with our community about the fact that we may need to operate some of our facilities and deliver our services differently,’’ as the council deals with the next phase of the pandemic.
‘‘We also need to prepare for the fact that at some stage we will have staff isolating at home, potentially up to 25 per cent of our people, which will severely limit our ability to keep our doors open.
‘‘Ensuring keeping facilities open and providing continuity of service to the Ka¯piti Coast is important and the council is getting prepared and implementing some changes in preparation.
‘‘From Monday, February 14, we’re changing our pool opening hours and making some changes to class timetables and what facilities are available at the Coastlands Aquatic Centre, O¯ taki Pool, and Waikanae Pool to enable us to divide our aquatics team into two distinct shifts.’’
The two shifts will not cross paths and will effectively be in two bubbles.
‘‘This will give us the best chance of keeping our pools open should one of our aquatics team return a positive Covid-19 test,’’ Mallon said.
The Coastlands Aquatic Centre will close between noon and 3pm and at the earlier time of 8.30pm Monday to Friday and will operate under reduced hours at weekends.
The programmes pool will be closed to the public at all times except for Aqua Ease/Move classes. The toddler pool remains open but the hydro slide and sauna are closed. There are also some changes to the Aqua class timetable and bookings are essential as class sizes will be restricted to 24 people.
The Waikanae Pool will open daily between 10.30am and 5.30pm, with the toddler pool only available on weekends. The hydro slide, spa, and barbecues will be unavailable while New Zealand remains at the red traffic light setting. There are also changes to the aqua class timetable and classes will limited to 30 people.
The O¯ taki Pool will be open from 11am-6pm Tuesday to Friday, from 8am to 3pm on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays and Mondays. The spa, sauna and barbecues will be unavailable and there are also changes to the aqua class timetable with classes restricted to 30 people.
The council’s website kapiticoast.govt.nz has been updated with the latest changes and the impact on libraries and service centres.
‘‘We encourage people to take a look at our website or to give us a call before they visit our facilities to avoid disappointment,’’ Mallon said.
He said library services were operating as normal with the exception of a minor change to opening hours at the Paraparaumu Library.
The council is also making some changes to how bookings for community venues are allocated to minimise the spread of the virus.
‘‘For venues where we’ve previously allowed multiple groups to use space within a venue at the same time, we will be limiting usage to one booking per venue,’’ Mallon said. ‘‘We are hopeful that by making some pragmatic decisions now we will be well placed for when we do start to see more active cases in our community. If things don’t play out as expected then we’ll look to revert to our normal operations as quickly as possible. Equally, if Omicron takes hold we may need to look to make further changes.’’
The council’s website has been updated to reflect the changes that will come into effect on Monday.
‘‘We continue to ask that people be patient and kind.
‘‘This is an ever-changing situation and while we may not be able to offer a full suite of services right now, our council team remains committed to delivering for the Ka¯piti Coast community and our customer service teams are always there to help,’’ Mallon said.