Daily News from New York, New York • 112

to -Tin IDADIL) News Bureau (718) 822-1174 Fax (718) 822-1562 Home Delivery 1-800-692-NEWS uuu (Mm By BOB KAPPSTATTER past year or so, with an eye to developing the armory as a sports venue. The are-foot armory at Kingsbridge and Jerome Aves. was formerly occupied by the state's National Guard. It was turned over to the city and has been vacant since 1994. Ruiz said the borough's council delegation worked to allocate funding in the 1997-1998 fiscal budget for the development of the deserted armory, as well as trying to secure a $150,000 grant to the project could be properly studied.

He charged that Mayor Giuliani dropped the $27 million Kingsbridge ap School District 10, as well as a possible recreational and sports facility. But Ferrer shot back that Ruiz had been asleep on the ramparts. "When we began to see that the mayor was moving new school construction into the out years, that told us that the mayor intended for the money not to be available until past the year 2000," Ferrer said. "I warned the delegation of that and Ruiz was across the table from me. Councilman Ruiz, at that moment, was completely silent" Ferrer also revealed that he has been talking to Cablevision and Madison Square Garden officials for the propriation, "because he was not presented with a proposal for the project" Ferrer argued that besides Giuliani not targeting any funds for new school construction in the Bronx next year, it would cost three times the amount of rehabilitation to build a complex of schools on the armory site.

"If they are going to build schools there, they are going to have to tear down that armory," Ferrer said. He said that the building has major structural problems. "Just stabilizing that building," he said, "would run to $16 to 17 million, according to the city's Department of General Services." Daily News Bronx Bureau Chief The political shot and shell were flying yesterday over a long dormant and crumbling Bronx fortress. The opening salvo was fired by City Councilman Israel Ruiz, who charged that Borough President Fernando Ferrer blew a chance to secure $27 million in capital funding to develop the Kingsbridge Armory. Ruiz, who is challenging Ferrer in the Democratic primary, said he had hoped the allocation would help transform the armory into a home for new schools in severely overcrowded ho xes a MM MKSCMT By RAFAEL A.

OUWEDA Manhattan's schools and libraries will reap more than half of Borough President Ruth Messinger's share of the city's capital budget Messinger, who is challenging Mayor Giuliani, reaped $12 million as her office's share of capital budget allocations in the newly approved city budget for fiscal yar 1998. Some $3.8 million of that will go to Manhattan schools and universities, she said, with another $2.29 million for its public libraries. "Our public schools are the training grounds for this city's future," she said yesterday. "Unfortunately, they have been devastated by some $1.3 billion, in cuts over the past 3V4 years." Included in her library funding will be $1.63 million for the rehabilitation of the Mid-Manhattan public library, $484,000 for renovation of the George Bruce branch library on W. 125th St, and $167,200 for multi-media computers in the children's rooms at branch libraries.

She earmarked $1.25 million to build libraries in six Manhattan elementary schools, for a total of $1.75 million over the next two fiscal years. Some $385,000 went into a two-borough kitty earmarked for helping John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx restore its football field. The citywide champion football team at Kennedy a school that draws students from Manhattan and the Bronx has been forced to play elsewhere because the field has been condemned. Manhattan junior high schools will receive $300,000 to build science labs, with an additional $2.9 million committed for fiscal years 1999-2001.

In higher education, Messinger's capital allocations will include $520,000 to buy 250 computers for the CUNY Graduate Center libraries, $479,000 for Baruch College's Distance Learning and Science Lab, and $253,000 at Hunter College. Boh Kappctattar Daily News Stair Writer They still don't take bills, but parking in front of some meters just became a little more convenient Bronx motorists shopping at four commercial strips in Morris Park and Throgs Neck are now encountering spiffy new electronic meters that give them a free five-minute grace period before asking for two bits more. "Good," said Paul Tomaselli, 62, who pulled into a parking spot on Morris Park Ave. to buy Italian ices with his daughter. "Meter maids are usually waiting there to give you a ticket," he said.

The new meters are part of a $1.2 million experiment proposed by City Councilman Michael De-Marco and funded by Mayor Giuliani. The city put up a total of 77 meters on Morris Park between Lurting and Colden Tremont from Bruckner Blvd. to Barkley and Crosby between Roberts and Westchester Aves. There's no specific timetable on the experiment, but if it's judged to be successful, 1,400 meters will be installed throughout DeMarco's east Bronx district, then more throughout the rest of the city. The meters, which have no knobs, feature a digital readout that tells exactly how much time is remaining, down to the second.

A sensor mounted within the meter detects when someone pulls into the parking space and automatically credits five minutes of parking time. "They're perfect for people who are just going to get a cup of coffee or a newspaper, or people who don't have change when they pull into the spot," saidDeMarco. But when Michael Casey parked by one of the new meters on his way to the Chase Bank on Morris Park the digital readout stubbornly stayed at 0:00 until he dropped a quarter in for 30 minutes of parking time. "Obviously, it needs to be fine-tuned," said Casey, 42. The sensor also detects when the motorist pulls away, and automatically drops the remaining time.

"You can't go in on somebody else's time," De-Marco said. Drivers like Tomaselli were not surprised. "They should give you a refund for the time you haven't used," he argued. "Fuhgeddaboudit You can never beat the city." MttAMO kWOSfTO QUARTER IS GIVEN by Toni Medici as she feeds new parking meter on Crosby Ave. ill, JJc di Jit''- iuM-ll.