Since March this year Mr Easthope (43), of Wanaka, has been managing the Molyneux Aquatic Centre, in Alexandra and the Cromwell Swim Centre along with providing advice and assistance to six other community pools in the district.
‘‘We need to put in quality systems - customer systems at the forefront here and the pool in Cromwell,'' Mr Easthope said.
‘‘We need to have a customer focus, we need to be serving the needs of the community - water safety is high on the programme, we need programmes that attract users and are enticing to our users.''
During this interview there were less than a handful of people at the Alexandra pool. ‘‘As you can see the use here is sparse, so it concerns me this facility is not being used,'' Mr Easthope said.
It was essential to attract more people to use the pool - particularly during the winter months as the centre had a ‘‘brief amount of use really for the size of the complex'', he said.
‘‘My role is to guide them [the team] and see it through at the council level and develop the best possible business.''
Administration of both the Alexandra and Cromwell pools was done in consultation with the community boards and there would be an assessment of ‘‘what could be done straight away'' and what could be ‘‘done over time'', he said.
Running swimming programmes at the two main pools helped to offset the running costs of the pool.
Learn to Swim, water safety, river and child boat safety programmes could all be learnt at the pool and were crucial when considering Water Safety New Zealand's drowning statistics, he said.
Kayak polo was very strong at the moment and was ‘‘going for strength-to-strength'' and they were adding to the aqua aerobics programme.
‘‘The investment in both of these pools [Cromwell and Alexandra], from my understanding, is the community wanted the pools so let's get them back into the pools.''
To move in a positive direction change was needed but it ‘‘should not be feared it should be embraced'', he said.
The community needed ‘‘to get behind'' the pools and if anyone had any ideas they should ‘‘let us know and we'll try to work it in'', he said.
