Daily News from New York, New York • 226

NEIGHBORHOOD DDDGPS I Jlfjjlg Daily News, Thursday. September 27. 19S4 ll-r IjT It-. By JOAN SHEPARD In 1930, when Harold McClain got a job as a ironworker on the Empire State Building, he knew he was a lucky man. Anybody who had a job at $1.92 an hour during the depths of the Depression was very lucky.

But the last thing McClain thought then was he would become living legend, which is what he is now, McClain is the last known surviving ironworker who worked on the city's most famous skyscraper. And he was one of the men photographed by Lewis Hine, another legend. YESTERDAY at the Empire State Building, McClain was given one Hine's photographs taken of McClain and other ironworkers. "I knew there was a man taking pictures of the job," said McClain, "but didn't know him. Big jobs are; always photographed." All of yesterday's hulla-boo was to celebrate a film, "America and Lewis Hine," which will be shown at the New York Film Festival torn-morrow night at Alice Tully Hall.

The -film was directed WW, s. Harold McCIain In front of Lewis Hines photograph of work McClain is at top left (wearing cap) in the picture. pean battlefields. After the war, Rosenblum explains in the film, Hine wanted to photograph some- thing optimistic. So he began Election disputed Assemblyman Vincent A.

Marchiselli (D-L), who was defeated by 256 votes in the Sept. 11 Democratic primary in the 82d Assembly District, has filed a challenge in State Supreme Court, requesting reversal of the election of his opponent, Lawrence Seabrook. The challenge was based on what Marchiselli claimed were "discoveries of election fraud." He was joined in his suit by his running mate for district leader, Edward Seabrook who lost to Lawence Seab-rook's running mate, Jack Corona, by 52 votes. Repairs to begin Much needed but much delayed repairs at Public School 16 in the Wakefield section are scheduled to begin Tuesday, according to Mary Lauro. president of the Wakefield Taxpayers Association.

Severe cracks in the 25-foot-high retaining wail on the west side of the school have caused repeated water damage to ceiling structures. Repairs, which were slated to begin in the summer after a visit by Controller Harrison Goldin last -spring, were put off indefinitely until Lauro and Janet DeMarco, head of the PS 16 PTA, caught up with Schools Chancellor Nathan Quinones last week. "He promised he'd let me know in a week, and sure enough, the chancellor called and told me the repairs to the exterior would be bid and contracted by Oct. 1. and repairs to the interior wall damage caused by the water would begin by winter," said Lauro.

The extensive repairs are estimated to cost $350,000. Sibling revelry The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services will expand its Big Brothers and Big Sisters program throughput the borough. Ed Siskin, president of the Manhattan-based service organization, said the expansion was prompted by the increase in the number of single-parent families. The program provides volunteers who serve as friends and role models to help children develop a sense of trust and a positive self-image, and to share good times with them. Alarms for aged The Queens Jewish Com-munity Council has some 911 Sound Alarms available for senior citizens living on low, fixed incomes.

Single persons 60 or older with monthly incomes not exceeding $677, or two persons with monthly incomes not exceeding $885 are eligible. Interested persons are urged to go to the council at 114-18 Queens Forest Hills, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

on Friday. Proof of eligibility is necessary. The alarms will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Firefighters honoring three of By BILL NEUGEBAUER A Westchester fireman credited with saving the life of a man who was impaled on a metal pipe will be amomg three firefighters honored by the New York State Honorary Fire Chiefs Association in ceremonies today at the 23d Street Grille at 158 E. 23d St.

Association president Frank Allen said the salute will focus on Firefighter James Coppeto of the Mount Vernon Fire Department, New York City Firefighter Robert Merkel of Ladder 42 JACK SMITH DAILV NEVV3 on Empire State Building. photographing the American worker and craftsman. The pictures of the Empire State Building were the peak of Hine's career. their own subsequently was given the Daily News Hero of the Month award. A 30-year veteran firefighter and holder of four departmental citations for bravery, O'Rourke took office April 2 as chief of department, commanding 12,300 officers and firefighters.

He was graduated magna cum laude from John Jay College with a bachelor's degree in fire science and was chief of training at the city's Fire Academy before assuming his present post. The luncheon gets under way at 12:30 p.m. Center plan tion and not be attached to City Center. However, there would be an arcade providing a public passage from one building to the other. "This building rests on its own footprint," said Helmut Jahn, architect.

"There is no interference or penetration of the landmark." After the architect's presentation, two community groups the Women's City Club and the Committee for the Preservation of West 54th and West 55th Streets-testified against the proposed tower. and produced by Nina Rosenblum. DURING World War I. Hine photographed the work, of the Red Cross on the Euro- in the South Bronx, and the city Fire Department's recently appointed chief of department, John J. O'Rourke.

O'Rourke will be sworn in as an honorary chief of the Manhattan-based organization, currently marking its 35th year of continuous service in behalf of professional and volunteer firefighters throughout the state. Coppeto, 40, is being cited for saving the life of Joseph Lopez, 23, of E. 96th Brooklyn, after a long steel pipe from a chain link fence pierced his right thigh and passed through his body in a The developer, Bruce Eichner, general partner of W. 56th St. Associates, needs a certificate of appropiate-ness from the commisssion, plus City Planning Commission approval of three zoning variances.

The proposed building would be an octagon with three setbacks and a mosquelike dome that would correspond to City Center's famous dome. City Center, now a theater, was built in 1924 as a temple for the Shriners order. Only the ex Landmarkers to hear more about City freak auto accident in Mount Pleasant on May 12, 1983. Coppeto, an emergency medical technician, stabilized Lopez, then proceeded to shorten the pipe with a hacksaw until an ambulance arrived. Lopez later recovered from his injuries.

Merkel, 36, received the James Gordon Bennett Medalthe Fire Department's highest annual honor for his courage on March 29, 1983, when he scrambled up a ladder ana rescued an unconscious man, Hernando Figueroa, 61, from a blazing tenement at E. 158th St. and Trinity Bronx. Merkel terior is a landmark. The sale of its air rights to the developer was approved in August by the Board of Estimate.

City Center is scheduled to receive between $10 million and $14 million from the sale. Of the first $9 million, a City Center spokesman said, $3 million would go to the City Opera Company; $3 million to the New York City Ballet, and $3 million to the Fifty-Fifth Street Dance Theater Foundation, which operates the building. The proposed tower would rest on its own founda- By JOAN SHEPARD The Landmarks Preservation Commission has extended its hearing on a proposed 69-story building that would rise beside and over the landmark City Center. The hearing will resume Oct. 23.

The proposed building would extend from 56th St. to 55th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves. It would contain 23 floors of. commerical space and 46 stories of apartments, topped by du plex penthouses..