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Activist theft of school building reaches 26th birthday

 

SEATTLE (Friday, 10-9-98)--YVN has learned from county and school district officials that this Sunday marks the 26th anniversary of a left-wing group's strong-arm takeover of Seattle's old Beacon Hill School building, and their claiming of it as "El Centro De La Raza".

 

These same activists recently attempted to take over a Mattawa Employment Security office, in which they said they were going to set up shop. But the farmer who owns the site was pivotal in booting their rumps out of Eastern Washington and back into downtown Seattle (stories below).

 

The old burglars, headed up by Roberto Maestas, have continued to occupy the Seattle building at no personal cost to them for more than a quarter century.

 

For 25 years, say district officials, there was no agreement between El Centro and the school district. Translated, that means "rent free".

 

Then, in August of 1997, Washington State, under the reign of Democrat Gov. Gary Locke, gave El Centro an opportunity to obtain money from state taxpayers to pay for the building. That year, the Seattle school board agreed to sell Beacon Hill School to El Centro provided that the group met all the "legal requirements".

 

Since then, the district and El Centro have been working on a purchase agreement, say school building-rental staff.

 

El Centro currently leases the building, and will do so until 2003, at $3 a square foot, which comes to a monthly tab of $12,600. It's not clear how El Centro pays that tab, but readers can probably rest assured it's tax money.

Stealing the old building--in the same manner Castro stole Cuba--will be quite a coup for the old leftist rag-heads at 2524 16th Ave. South. Readers can congratulate them on their good fortune at (206) 329-9442.

 

Though it's worth a lot more in the marketplace, the old Beacon Hill School building is assessed at $2,420,000, according to the King county assessor. The land it sits on is assessed at $329,600.

 

So the 1972 heist apparently will net Maestas and Co. at least $2,750,000.

 

All this probably doesn't add to Washington small businesses' incentive to pay their quarterly B&O taxes. One Sunnyside businessman's comments "aren't even fit for the Internet," he said.

 

Contrary to earlier reports, the city of Seattle apparently was not a player in the 1972 theft of Beacon Hill School.