Daily News from New York, New York • 277

fN a If Fireimm krmr 'era By OWEN FITZGERALD Until yesterday, Vito P. Battista, the civic firebrand from Brooklyn, thought he had bought himself a surplus firehouse to expand his architectural school only to dis- 1 cover that the Board of Estimate is considering scrapping the transaction. Battista, fuming in the City Hall press room, said his Insti personally to hand over a check for $15,000 only to have Commissioner Ira Duchan refuse to accept it. "We bid on that building legitimately. We were qualified to bid under he published conditions.

It's immoral for the city to change the ground rules after the auction was held. What's going on here a public aution or a private deal?" said Battista, doing a slowburn. Deputy Mayor Stanley Friedman, the mayor's man on the Board of Estimate, which will consider canceling the sale to Battista and returning his tomorrow, conceded the city was in error in not fully spelling out the terms of the sale to favor Polytech. "But the corporation counsel's office tells us that law provides that the city can correct the error before title is conveyed," said Friedman. the Real Estate Department's auction brochure and saw that it contained only three conditions.

They were simply, he maintain-e that only nonprofit educational institutions could bid on it, that the Fire Department must be granted a perpetual easement for access to a communications vault and that the building's landmark status be maintained. Drop Out at 51G So Vito, the ex-assemblyman and frequent mayoral candidate in the past, countered bid after bid by Poly. He drove the mini-m price to $55,000. Poly dropped out after reaching $51,000. He laid out $11,000 as a down payment and paid $100 for the auctioneer' fee.

A month ago he sent a certified check for $7,300 to the Real Estate Department, only to have it returned uncash-ed. Yesterday, his lawyer tried tute for Design and Construc- tion outbid Polytechnic Institute of New York at a Jan. 29 city I public auction for the landmark I firehouse. 1 Tlje minimum price wa3 0 0 0 for the four-story brick firehouse at 3 6 5 Jay St. in downtown Brooklyn.

It is topped I by a tower and once was the headquarters of the old City of Brooklyn fire forces. Polytech, hacked by the a Mayor's Office for Downtown Brooklyn Development and the Fire Department, thought it had I a lock on the sale. I Planned Lab, Center 1 Poly had planned to establish a cultural center in the fire- a fire safety technology lab and house, and the Board of Esti- mate agreed to place the fcuild- ing on the auction block on 1 those conditions. 1 Battista said he was unaware I of Poly's plan. He said he read News photo by Ed Molinari At PS 140, 4 and 5-year-olds took seeds out of fruit and then planted them as "Week of the Young Child" project.

Sprouts Blossom If or of Ed Ax (ids ummer Lunch races By MARK LIFF Board of Education headquarters was turned into the garden spot of New York yesterday by a group of 4 and 5-year-olds from P.S. 140 in Manhattan. They planted seeds and pretended that they themselves were growing saplings as part of the city-wide "Week of the Young Child" observance. By POLLY KLINE The federal government's 1975 summer free lunch program for poor youngsters "Look, its a little baby seed," cried pre-kindergarten may be cut back or eliminated at a time when applications are being submitted in record siuaent cerruce noiamg up a seeu, irum a Mice nnmhprq in fha cfv nffiriflls said VPSterdav. apple.

"It needs soil and water and sunlight to grow up into The legislation creating the I program expires June 30, and while the Senate voted a resolu- tion two weeks ago continuing I it through next summer, the a tree. With help from her mother, Bernice carefully placed a shovelful of soil on the seed, and then sprinkled it with water. "It doesn't need people food to grow," said Kenneth Padron, 5, knowingly. 1 house has not yet acted. Getting The event was held in the board's meeting room at 110 the $52.7 million appropriation Livingston Brooklyn.

It was sponsored by the Bureau of through is another matter, ac- Early Childhood Education. "It's very exciting," said Hor- cording to John Ghiorzi, the tense Jones, the program's director. "This is the first time U.S. Agriculture Department's we've been able to get all of the agencies that deal with coordinator for the program in early childhood education together." I this region, and the "legislative As representatives from the United Federation of I picture is foggy," he said. iTu p.nt, icexnfmn onri lnni lne ora admmstration has in Brooklyn, deplored the threatened curtailment.

This year more applications have already been received than came in all last summer, and sponsors are busy structuring their programs to be ready as soon as Congress acts, Robert Moore, director of the Brooklyn Urban League, said. "This fills a big gap," he said. "In many cases, it's othe only real meal a kid gets." The league, one of 17 sponsoring agencies in Brooklyn, and 45 throughout the city, served about 32,000 free lunches each weekday last July and August. These meals each including a pre-packaged sandwich, container of milk and piece of fresh fruit, and occasionally fruit juice, were handed out by 125 groups in 10 different neighborhoods. This year, 150 groups have already applied for funding.

Federal Aide Is Indicted as Bribe Seeker By MARCIA KRAMER An official of the federal General Services Administration whose job was to give final approval to businesses that had been awarded federal contracts, was indicted by a Brooklyn grand groups from throughout the city discussed their special learning programs. Ethel Leifer led her class of pre-kindergart-ners in a learn-while-you-play science lesson. "We love to teach them with food," she said, while handing out little plastic trays filled with colored beans of all sizes and shapes. "From this lesson, they'll learn that new plants grow from little seeds." proposed slashing subsidies for the federal school lunch program, of which the summer project is an extension. Leaders of local sponsoring agencies, which last summer provided 521,000 free lunches a week citywide, 208,543 of them Firemen Save Seven Trapped in Blaze By JERRY ADLER Using a cherry-picker and extension ladders, firemen yesterday rescued seven persons, including two children, from their fourth-floor apartments where they were 3 -y i 1 i I 15ml ft' lis rrk trapped by the heat and smoke of a two-alarm fire jury yesterday on charges of bribery and extortion.

According to five-count indictment, the official, Harry D. Iaconetti, 46, of 534 E. 56th Brooklyn, solicited a $12,250 bribe from a Brooklyn envelope manufacturer and demanded an unspecified amount from a second Brooklyn company. Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond J.

Dearie, deputy chief of the criminal division, said that Iaconetti worked as a quality assurance specialist. He was charged with soliciting 1 of the $1,250,000 envelope contract. Lowest Bidder According to court papers filed at the time of Iaconetti's arrest on Feb. 26, the government official allegedly told the president of the Champion Envelope Manufacturing- 184 Kent Brooklyn, that he would have to fork over the "fee" if he wanted the contract approved, even though Champion submitted the lowest bid. Michael i i Champion's president, told federal authorities that Iaconetti came to his plant on Feb.

10 to conduct a pre-award survey of the facilities and determine the company's ability to complete a proposed contract. It was during that meeting, he said, that 1 Iaconetti demanded the money. One of the trapped civilians, identified as Gregory Cooper, 19, suffered third degree burns on the face and hands and was rushed to Brookdale Hospital after his rescue, according to fire officials. The blaze broke out at about 7:30 a.m. in a fourth-floor apartment of the eight-story building at 1266 Sutter part of the Cypress Hills project.

"Hall Was Blowtorch" The occupants, Harriet and Robert Marsh, escaped as the blaze spread quickly through the apartment and into the hallway. "The hallway was like a blowtorch," said Lt. Adolph Ciullo of Ladder Company 107. "It was so hot the plastic peephole on the door of the adjoining apartment melted." The intense heat and smoke trapped four persons in the next apartment. Fireman Mario De-Sena of Ladder 107 went up in a cherry-picker to bring them down.

As he brought out the first person, a window of the burning apartment a few feet away blew out, burning DeSena slightly. First to Safety The rescued four were identified as Benjamin Kornegay, 26; Sonia Morris, 25, and her two children, Steven, 4, and Jeffrey, 3. Meanwhile, three persons, including Cooper, were trapped in another fourth-floor apartment. Fireman Thomas McCabe of Ladder 107 brought an extension ladder to the building and carried down Cooper, a woman identified as Edith Black, 20, and another man, who firemen said left the scene and did not give his name. I i News photo by Ed Molinar! Benjamin Kornegay (left) relaxes after his rescue by Fireman Mario DeSena (center) as Capi Lloyd Williams conducts.