In 2023, the Building Committee took on the task of making our church safer and more secure with new exterior doors and an advanced access control system.
The new doors, installed throughout the sanctuary and community center, not only make our parish more secure but also beautify the buildings with improved doorways with windows that allow in more natural light. The doors are also ADA-compliant with automatic openers, and also fire-code-compliant.
Even more important is the new access control system, an advanced system that allows the administrators of our parish to control when and how people get access to our buildings. Previously, doors would have to be locked and unlocked manually, a cumbersome and time-consuming job, and sometimes doors would accidentally be left locked or unlocked. It also meant a lot of people had a lot of keys, and any time a key was lost or someone who had a key left the parish, locks would need to be replaced.
The new system solves that by managing each door with a parish-wide electronic access system. Now doors can be locked and unlocked on a schedule or a simple command from an app without needing to physically go to each door. After-hour access can be granted by assigning a keyfob to those approved by Parish Council, who can unlock doors on a per-person permission basis, or an authorized user can use the access system app to remotely unlock a door. This allows our parish to better manage access to our buildings while also adding another layer of security, and when paired with our alarm system, allows even greater security.
If you have questions about the new system or would like to request a keyfob, contact the church office at holycrosspittsburgh@gmail.com.