PORT ANGELES — A congregation barred from holding church services in a former clothing store is looking for new quarters.
Pastor Mark Weatherford said Eastern Hills Community Church hopes to find another place of worship within the next two weeks.
Parishioners gathered Sunday afternoon in Independent Bible Church, 116 E. Ahlvers Road, but Weatherford said it wasn’t a long-term arrangement.
Eastern Hills church in the old Fashion Bug store, 3441 E. Kolonels Way in the former Kmart shopping center east of Port Angeles, was posted with a no-occupancy order after it was found to violate county zoning, plumbing and fire codes on Wednesday.
Weatherford said Monday the action by Rob Robertsen, Department of Community Development director, caught him by surprise.
He added that he didn’t intend to sound defiant when he said the day before Thanksgiving that worshipers still would use the building.
“We work within the law,” Weatherford said.
“It sounded like I was going to defy the law, and that wasn’t what happened at all. It just kind of threw us that we didn’t have another place.”
The pastor also said he did not mean to imply that the church was being “hassled” on religious grounds.
Robertsen said Monday he hoped the zoning and code issues could be worked out.
But Weatherford said: “I don’t think it will be resolved.”