Council insists on qualified pool staff

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 606, 3 October 1995, Page 1

Council insists on qualified pool staff

All pool attendants in the Ruapehu District must have recognised life saving certificate and a current first aid qualification. If the council can't find the staff with qualifications then the pool affected will not open. So said the council' s property manager Alan Low at the council' s meeting last Friday, and the council agreed. There was some discussion on the situation in Raetihi where the pool has traditionally been operated by the swimming club. Mr Low told the council that he had

attempted to make contact with the club to discuss the maitter but that he had as yet received no reply. He said the council was willing to assist the club with training to certification level if necessary, and that they were being careful not to jeopardise the relationship with

Council pool staff

FROMPAGEl the club. However, he underlined the council' s position that "a minimum of two fully qualified poolside supervisory staff with a third on call ... together with an administration person" must be employed. Standards "It was considered to be wrong to set standards at one end of the district and not the other," he said. He said because the arrangement with the Raetihi S wimming Club had not yet been confirmed, an allowance had been made in the budget to employ staff to run the pool there. Mr Low said suitably qualified club members could be employed, and paid, by the council. "The Raetihi Swimming Club has for many years provided service to the council," said mayor

Garrick Workman, "andl'd hate to see that relationship change." He said the reasons for the insistence on qualifications for staff were obvious given the tragic drowning that occurred in Taumarunui last summer.

Mr Low said they would be doing everything they could to preserve the relationship with the club. "The bottom line anywhere in the di strict i s , if we don't have the right people the pool doesn't open," he concluded.