News Nearby: Olympian's Home Struck by Lightning Days Before Games

Sure, Three Village Patch covers all things local. But if you're wondering what went on in surrounding areas over the past week, take a look at some top headlines from around the area:

Last year the to secure the historic red brick building on the corner of Main Street and East Main Street in Port Jefferson. Once the First National Bank, the building housed the Brookhaven Town Tax Receiver's office but remained vacant for years before the deal was done.
Now, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame is embarking on a capital campaign to raise the roughly $2.5 million it needs to transform the space into a state-of-the-art exhibit center focusing on Long Island music history.
After a on July 1, guests were brought to the building to see plans for the new museum.

Firefighters responded to a Nesconset house and car fire Wednesday evening after lightning struck the home, sending power lines into the vehicles at the home of Olympian Maria Michta.

According to Assistant Chief Doug Sneider, the initial call for the fire at 7 4th Street came in at roughly 5:30 p.m. Sneider said lightning struck the outside of the home on Lillian Road while a mother and two children were inside. No damage was done to the interior of the home and no one in the home was injured.

Sneider said power lines also came down and set two cars on fire. Firefighters could not do anything to extinguish the flames until LIPA arrived at the scene to shut down power, which Sneider said took approximately two hours to have completed.

Bella Cucina will be the latest edition to the Kings Park dining scene and is slated to open late this week at the 95 Pulaski Road location, according to owners Anthony Barucci and Tom Lowder.

A car careened off of the Long Island Expressway North Service Road Thursday night, smashing into a Brentwood 7-Eleven and injuring three people, including a pregnant woman and an infant, police said.

A Miller Place man was killed Wednesday night, according to police, after he crashed into a telephone pole while driving alone in Port Jefferson Station shortly after 8 p.m.
Gerard Daguanno, 49, was driving a 1998 Oldsmobile westbound on Route 347, police said, when his vehicle veered off the road and struck the pole near Woodhull Avenue.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by an assistant with the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office.