Whanganui East Pool making up for lost time with new opening hours

A full roster of lifeguards is ready to go this summer. Photo / Lewis Gardner

The Whanganui East pool will be open for business much earlier than last summer – and later into the evenings.

Whanganui District Council community and customer experience general manager Marianne Cavanagh said the council was “pretty stoked” to have enough qualified lifeguards to run a full roster.

“Full credit to Lucy [Thompson, council aquatic service manager] for the recruitment drive we’ve been doing. There has been a real focus on it.

“We have a dedicated trainer because we know that’s the key to everything. We couldn’t keep the operating hours as they were.”

The pool was available only to schools in summer 2021-22 but it attracted 8285 users between January 9 and April 1 this year.

Cavanagh said more secondary school students were getting involved in aquatics training and being a lifeguard could be a career choice, not just a job.

“You can become a team leader, then move into understanding the management of the facility or the water quality,” she said.

The pool will open to the public at midday every day from December 16.

It will close at 6pm from Sunday to Thursday and at 7pm on Friday and Saturday.

Last summer, it was open only until 5pm on weekends.

Attendance dropped right off when kids returned to school for term one this year, Cavanagh said.

“We would have lifeguards on but maybe only two people would turn up.

“It will still be open during the weekends (after school returns) but during the week, it will be by booking.”

Booking inquiries can be made from November 27.

Thompson prepared a business case for an upgrade of the nearly 100-year-old facility earlier this year.

It would cost approximately $2.1 million, with pool refurbishment and filtration making up $1.5m of that.

Cavanagh said the pool had been repainted this year.

“Look, it is an old facility and it’s one of the things the council has to consider in terms of its long-term budgeting.

“Do we invest in it or do we not? That is a decision for the council as we move forward.

“At this stage, it’s all go and people can get out there in the sun and enjoy it.”

Heating the pool is being considered as part of the potential upgrade but that won’t be in place this time around.

“That’s why we need a nice long summer,” Cavanagh said.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.