Daily News from New York, New York • 89

DAILl News Bureau (718) 822-1174 Fax (718) 822-1562 Home Delivery 1-800-692-NEWS thmWSil mm wmm i i HOD'S MM Clianges By BOB KAPPSTATTER He also uses a wheelchair and drives a car outfitted with hand controls. Stone, who comes from a long line of firefighters, sued the city in 1995 after it refused to give him a light-duty assignment to the department's fire prevention bureau or fire alarm bureau. A federal trial judge agreed with the city and threw out Stone's lawsuit. But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in June that the trial judge should have focused more closely on the duties of firefighters assigned to the two bureaus.

It noted there is no record of any firefighter working in the two bureaus being asked to help fight a fire. In the appeal acted on yesterday by the Supreme Court, lawyers for the city argued that "in an emergency response agency a duty can be essential to a job even when it is hardly ever needed." Mount Vernon officials had no immediate response yesterday. With Nm Win tyIci a productive member of the Mount Vernon Fire Department despite his disability," his lawyer, Donald Sapir, of the White Plains firm of Sapir Frumkin, said in a statement "Now maybe this means I can move on and hopefully get back to work," Stone, 28, said yesterday after the Daily News broke the news to him of the high court's ruling. "It's the life I've always wanted." Stone has been on sick leave since his 1992 accident He receives full benefits and pay under an agreement in which fellow firefighters contribute their sick days and vacation time, to Stone. A federal appeals court said a trial is needed to determine whether Mount Vernon is violating the federal anti-bias law by shunning Stone.

Struck by a storm-damaged tree that snapped upright and sent him flying 20 feet, Stone was initially paralyzed from the waist down. After undergoing physical rehabilitation, he can walk for a few hours at a time with the aid of leg braces. Daily News Bronx Bureau Chief A partially paralyzed Westchester firefighter who is battling to keep his job won a major round yesterday in the U.S. Supreme Court The justices, without comment, rejected an appeal by the city of Mount Vernon seeking to quash firefighter Matthew Stone's discrimination lawsuit against the city. Stone, who was injured in an off-duty accident, has argued under the Americans With Disabilities Act that while he can't fight fires, he should at least be allowed to work a desk job in the department City officials contend that all members of its force, even those performing desk work, must be able to respond to emergency calls.

Yesterday's ruling means that Stone will be able to proceed with a jury trial in his federal suit against the city. "Matt Stone is now looking forward to showing a jury of his peers that he can be spiels Mfio-gooou gmw BRONX The and IND subway lines above 145th St. in Manhattan are switching places, starting next week, transit officials said yesterday. Starting Sunday, the following changes will occur: Weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., northbound trains, which previously terminated at 168th St. in Manhattan, will travel to Bedford Park Blvd. in the Bronx. From 9 a.m.

to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, northbound trains will terminate at 145th St. in Manhattan, where riders can then switch over to northbound trains.

train service will not change after 9 p.m. weekdays or on weekends. Northbound trains will now terminate at 168th St. in Manhattan at all times. Service on the and lines below 145th St.

in Manhattan will not change. A transit spokesman said the change is designed to ease overcrowding on the line and to reduce passenger confusion over its northbound operation. For further details, call New York City Transit at (718) 330-1234. Morris Heights Community Board 5 will hold a public hearing on the mayor's preliminary proposed city budget and community priorities when it hold its regular monthly meeting tomorrow night. The board, which also covers Mount Hope, Fordham and Bathgate, will meet at 6 p.m.

at Middle School 306, 40 W. Tremont Ave. Call (718) 364-2030 for information. University Heights Bronx Community College is expanding its evening and Saturday courses to help building managers, superintendents and homeowners in building maintenance. Classes, which begin March 14, are being offered on plumbing, carpentry, electrical systems, boiler maintenance and pest control.

For more information, call (718) 289-5170. By VIRGINIA BREEN Daily News Staff Writer Exactly one year after a crazed gunman shot him in the head atop the Empire State Building, Matthew Gross braved midtown Manhattan yesterday to support a new anti-gun organization founded by his brother. The 28-year-old musician clutched a torn sheet of loose-leaf paper with handwritten notes topped by the carefully printed word "SPEECH." "This is my introduction: Hello," he quipped, facing a roomful of reporters at HBO's 42nd St offices. He briefly recounted the carnage of Feb. 23, 1997, when Ali Abu a Palestinian teacher, shot him, killed his pal Chris Bur-meister, 27, and injured six others.

Gross spent 11 days in a coma and could barely talk for two months. He still suffers from memory problems and occasional seizures. "I took a bullet in my head," Gross said. "But I'm not here to talk about me." Gross made his first public appearance to support Pax, a national grass-roots campaign targeting gun violence launched by his older brother, Daniel. The rock singer sat amid the pantheon of the American anti-gun movement: former White House press secretary James Brady, shot along with President Ronald Reagan in March 1981, and Rep.

Carolyn McCarthy whose husband was killed and son injured by Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson. "It's time for us to get outraged and to resolve this crisis that is destroying our country," pledged Daniel Gross, who quit his job as a partner at V) mmJiamirMUi.iiirMTririiiilirMMMriiMmiii liTMMMiiiMMiiifMinTi" t-rT mi lii nTniWuimn im fxmm rr -J I DAILY NEWS MIKIALBAHI ROCK ON! Matthew Gross speaks at forum for Pax, an anti-gun group founded by his older brother, Daniel. hand. As speaker after speaker railed against handguns, Gross tapped a drum solo on his leather pants. U.S.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg shook Gross' hand and whispered, "Matthew, thank you for your courage." "Hey, no problem," Gross replied. McCarthy, whose injured son, Kevin, is two years older than Gross is, embraced him J. Walter Thompson advertising to head Pax. McCarthy added, "On the In-ternet tonight, we will be called gun grabbers and we will be called fanatics.

But we're just trying to save an-other family from going through what we've been through. Is that so terrible?" Gross, the former lead singer of The Bushpilots, nervously gripped his big brother's with a motherly hug. "I told him you're going to have a bad day now and again but get over it," she told the Daily News. "You just have to hang in there." Gross, who filed a $50 million suit against Empire State Building Associates, did not want to discuss his recovery. Daniel Gross stressed that his brother was "doing amazingly well." ft 9 i -i i mm..