__________________ Nassau _________________
HERALD All the news of the Five Towns
New addition at Gural JCC
standing up against smoking in Hewlett
David Hance honored for aid
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Vol. 100 No. 28
JUlY 6 - 12, 2023
$1.00
Chipping in for Oliver Miller GoFundMe campaign has raised over $24,000 for Missy’s son tain hormones that you need to live,” his mother explained. “His brain stem was injured, so a lot Atlantic Beach resident of the signals that need to go Melissa Miller endured the from the brain to the body for death of a daughter, Melanie, in normal functioning don’t get 1997. Then, two years later, seven there correctly.” weeks after her son, Oliver, was Miller and her husband, born, she learned that he had Brandon, have another daughter, suffered a stroke in utero. Katy, 29, who has no health According to Miller, known to issues. And instead of asking many as Missy, who herself, “What hapserved in the State pened?” or “Why Assembly from 2017us?” she said, she 2022 and is now a has been inspired by H e m p s t e a d t ow n something author councilwoman, OliGary Zukav said on ver’s prognosis was “The Oprah Winfrey poor: Doctors said Show” in 2012. he wouldn’t live past “We’re not in conhis second or third trol of what happens birthday. He proved in the big picture,” them wrong, and Miller remembers over the years Miller Zukav saying. “We has immersed him have no control of it. in feeding, physical The only thing we and speech therapy, ANDRew leVY have control over is which pushed him to how we respond to Atlantic Beach do things that docwhat happens, how tors never expected we respond to the him to do. He is now big picture.” 23. As Oliver entered his tween But as a result of his stroke, years, Miller described it as hitOliver experienced developmen- ting a “brick wall” due to the tal delays, and is blind and suf- limitations of traditional treatfers from daily seizures. “A lot of ment for him. “Doctors were saythe structures in his brain are ing, ‘There’s nothing else we can injured, so he doesn’t make cerContinued on page 16
By HeRNesTo GAlDAmeZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
Herald file photo
FiVe TowNs CommUNiTY Center Executive Director K. Brent Hill has resigned after three and a half years in the job. Above, Hill greeted a Head Start program class in 2019.
Community center head resigns as its future remains unclear By HeRNesTo GAlDAmeZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
Change has begun at the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence, as its executive director, K. Brent Hill, has resigned after three and a half years of leading the 116-year-old institution, Hill’s last day is Friday. His resignation comes amid uncertainty about the center’s future, after Nassau County, apparently planning to take the facility in a different direction, issued a request for proposal in January seeking people or entities to provide youth-oriented activities and services there. “I moved out of state,” Hill said, who relo-
cated to Connecticut near Danbury a few months. “Otherwise I would still be here fighting the fight with everyone else, but I’m no longer living in the community.” The community center building and property, at 270 Lawrence Ave., are owned by Nassau County, which has leased the site to the center since 1974. It was not offered a renewal. County Legislator Carriè Solages, who represents the area, said he believed there was more to Hill’s resignation than simply a desire to move. “In my opinion, it is a forced resignation, because of the lack of support from the board and also from the county administration,” Continued on page 7
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e’re superappreciative of all the love and support that we’ve had coming out.