Gural JCC proposal offers to aid the Five Towns Community Center

The lives of many Five Towns residents are in serious jeopardy.”

Kevin Thompson

The Five Towns Community Center’s future is in doubt. Its  lease is due to expire in 2024, and Nassau County issued a request for proposal in January for the future use of the Lawrence Avenue facility and its property. But there may new life for the center after all.

A proposal from the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC, seeking to partner with the 116-year-old community center, was announced at a Feb. 23 Five Towns center board meeting.

“Our proposal brings together two tenured and respected organizations that currently serve the greater Five Towns,” the letter stated, “who will collaborate and share one community campus. This ‘coming together’ of two unique social service organizations will only benefit the residents of the greater Five Towns.”

The county owns the property, at 270 Lawrence Ave. in Lawrence, where the community center has been headquartered since 1972. It is run in partnership with the county, and leases its building from the county. The 50-year lease, signed in 1974, is expected to expire next year, with no extension offered. The RFP sent out by the county on Jan. 2 sought people or entities to provide youth-oriented activities and services at the facility and upgrades to the gym and athletic field.

According to the letter from the Gural JCC, it would allow the center to continue offering its activities and services, but in a more modern facility at its current location.

“Our plan is to provide the Five Towns Community Center a beautiful self-contained renovated space of approximately 7,500-square-feet with its own main entrance and lobby,” the letter stated. “This would ensure that the Five Towns Community Center continues to operate independently and provide the programs and services they currently offer to the community.”

“At this time, no comment,” Gural JCC Executive Director Stacey Feldman said.

The Gural JCC offers an array of services at its building on Grove Avenue, in Cedarhurst, and at the Harrison-Kerr Family Campus in Lawrence. The JCC acquired the Lawrence property, at 196 Central Ave., from Temple Israel of Lawrence in 2017.

On the family campus there is an early childhood center, and the JCC uses the temple’s ballroom for events. JCC services include programs for seniors, adults and teens.

In the JCC’s Cedarhurst location, the Sustenance Hope Opportunities Place houses the Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry and social assistance services.

The Five Towns center is home to a variety of similar programs and services, such as after-school programs for children, aid to the foreign-born, health and prevention services, and Gammy’s Pantry, which provides food and other necessities for those in need. There is also a summer camp, basketball tournaments and a variety of community events, including a soccer league, Inwood Day and a Police Activity League program.

Kevin Thompson became familiar with the center through his brother-in-law, Pete Sobol, a longtime board member who died in 2021. Thompson said he is concerned that the people now being helped by the Community Center could be forgotten.

“I think it’s necessary for everyone involved to be completely honest and upfront with purposes and intentions,” Thompson said. “The lives of many Five Towns residents are in serious jeopardy of being disenfranchised by a change in purpose and direction of the Five Towns Community Center.”

Sobol served as the center’s interim executive director, and was known for his fierce advocacy for the people who made use of the center’s services.

According to its lease with the county, the Five Towns center is responsible for providing health and social services “for the health and welfare of the people in the Five Towns Community.”

Chris Boyle, a spokesman for County Executive Bruce Blakeman, told the Herald on Jan. 20 that the center “has failed to live up to their obligations. Which is problematic.” Boyle has not responded to follow-up questions.

Neither the community center’s board president, Gwynn Campbell, nor Executive Director K. Brent Hill returned calls seeking comment.