The increase of Omicron cases and household isolations at Hamilton City Council has resulted in adjustments to some facility opening hours and service offers.

Both the Pools and the Libraries are feeling the impact of Omicron this week. Due to further staff shortages, the St Andrews library will be closed from Saturday 12 March, while Waterworld will be working on reduced hours and services from Saturday as well.

“Our team gets sick too and Omicron is so fast, things for us are literally changing overnight,” said Helen Paki, Hamilton City Council’s General Manager Community.

Hamilton City Libraries:

In addition to the Central City Library, the St Andrews Library will be closed while Hamilton’s four busiest community libraries – Chartwell, Hillcrest, Glenview and Dinsdale – will remain open, providing an open library within 10 minutes’ drive from anywhere in Hamilton.

To make sure the community can still get the books they’re after, we’re waiving hold fees (usually $1.50) until all of our libraries are open again. Contactless returns, through the return chute, are still available at all libraries.

Waterworld:

With many staff now isolating, Waterworld will be running a reduced schedule from this weekend. While some pools may be closed and hours reduced, all Learn to Swim classes will continue as planned.

“It is important to us to continue to provide Hamiltonians with the opportunity to learn how to be safe in the water, especially while the last higher temperatures of summer are still around,” Paki says. “Therefore, our Learn to Swim classes will be unaffected and going ahead as normal.”

The reduced hours and services mean that the hydroslide and the outdoor Lido pool are now closed. Alongside this, the new reduced hours for Waterworld are:

• 12 – 13 March: open from 7.30am – 12pm.
• 14 – 18 March: open from 5.30am – 6.30pm. Services reduced as follows:
  • Hydrotherapy and 25m Pools open from 8am – 3pm
  • 50m and Dive Pools open from 5.30am – 8am, and 3pm – 6.30pm (closed between 8am and 3pm)

“A third of our Hamilton Pools staff is currently positive or isolating as a result of a household contact and we simply no longer have enough staff to keep Waterworld open at our regular hours.” Paki says.

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