One of the big projects of 2024 was working to improve the safety and security of our parish campus. Going into 2024 both of our parking lot lights were not working, nor were many of the exterior lights around our buildings. This made for unsafe walking and parking at night.
Another detriment to this is that individuals would on occasion take advantage of our poorly lit campus to store items along our brick wall and to sometimes cause disruptions.
My gratitude goes to our Junior Warden, Guido Polana for his continued work especially around alleviating our lighting problems. If you come by some time around dusk or later you’ll see that both parking lot lights have been replaced, a motion detector light has been installed on the portable building, and all the lights in the immediate area of the buildings have been replaced. Thank you Guido for your work on this! The bushes along the wall have also been trimmed back. Thanks to all who assisted (and who continue to assist) with that project.
The parish has also reached out to the Rancho Cordova PD. We have applied for and received a “Letter of Agency”. Previously if there were folks trespassing on the property a church representative had to be on site to authorize the RCPD to take proper action when someone was trespassing. A Letter of Agency allows anyone to report an instance of trespassing on our campus and the RCPD will come out and act accordingly without any other involvement by the person reporting the trespassing or by a representative of St. Clement’s. Our immediate neighbors have been alerted to this new protocol and have been encouraged to make a report to the RCPD if they feel that it is necessary.
To our members, you are never required to report trespassing, but if you see an instance of trespassing or are on campus and see someone that causes you to not feel safe, please call the RCPD at 916-362-5115. The RCPD has a good relationship with many of our homeless community. Most situations are resolved by a reminder that St. Clement’s is private property and that they need to move on from our campus. The RCPD also has access to resources that they can point the trespasser to if they need various forms of assistance. On very rare occasions further action by the RCPD may be required but all that is required of you in the situation is to alert the RCPD to the situation.
If you have any questions, please feel free to speak to Rev. Zac or a member of your vestry.
