Letters: Tent meeting family hopes to avoid controversy next year

As you may well know, my family's tent meetings on the corner of Parkway and McNamara roads stirred up a little bit of controversy while in progress. Our misunderstanding with the county in regards to its permitting process and the ensuing fiasco involving the routine enforcement of the misapplied code has been the topic of not a few debates since then.

We do want to express our sincere apologies to anyone in the neighborhood surrounding the tent for any discomfort our event may have caused. We will most definitely be taking a much more proactive and serious role in meeting neighbors and complying with local codes (especially a hoped-for revision to better accommodate temporary structures and religious gatherings) next time we set the tent up in Crescent City!

Having been actively involved in different aspects of this community for a total of 8 months out of the past year, we have grown to deeply love the people of Del Norte County. Our intention is and has always been to have a positive effect on the community and to be able to invest back into it through the results of our ministry; one changed life at a time.

We wish to thank attorney Jon Alexander for his willingness to help us free of charge and for his honorable way of intermediating with integrity.

Our hope is that these events will pave the way for a positive revision in the way the county handles events such as ours in the future and that the next time the tent returns to town, we can all get down to the real business of what every healthy community thrives upon; lifting up those who are weak, serving others and bringing restoration to broken families … one changed life at a time.

Allen Walz

Gold Beach, Ore.