A couple of holes large enough for an adult to crawl through were seen recently in the fence surrounding Menachem Mendal Seattle Cheder Day School. Have you seen people on the property after hours?
By Katie Melton
The loud fight over a grove of 80 mature Douglas fir trees fenced off in south Maple Leaf lingered through much of last year, and still pops up now and then.
The central issue was largely resolved by late May, when the Maple Leaf Community Council again announced it had brokered a deal to save the trees.
Since then the Menachem Mendal Seattle Cheder Day School, a Judaic day school for children, has moved into the venerable building behind the trees, which was once the old Waldo Hospital and more recently the headquarters of Camp Fire Puget Sound.
The Community Council and the Jewish school later won a conservation award for their work preserving the trees.
What hasn’t gone away is the fence surrounding the trees and the school, which was brought up at January’s Maple Leaf Community Council Executive Board meeting.
The property at the corner of 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 85th Street has had repeated break-ins, one of which was witnessed by a nearby neighbor. At the council meeting, the complaint stated that the person seen on the property was walking their dog.
We found two holes at different locations recently. No dog fur was seen, but a lot of beer cans and mini-liquor bottles were in the shrubbery.
Rabbi Yossi Charytan, head of the MMSC, would like any suspicious activity involving the fence to be reported to the police or the school.
Katie Melton is the intern for Maple Leaf Life. She is a journalism student at the University of Washington.
