The sign, which was installed April 27, incorrectly spelled the name of the famous square in the heart of the city’s government district as “Folley.”

The square — on the site of the historic Five Points neighborhood — is named after Thomas Foley, a prominent Tammany Hall district leader who once served as a member of the old City Council, as an alderman.

The News alerted the Transportation Department about the misspelled sign at 11:07 a.m. yesterday. At 12:15 p.m., a DOT truck rolled up and a cheery city employee removed the spelling-challenged sign.

“They said it was important,” the worker explained. “They’re getting a new one made up.”

Within an hour, the new sign — with the correct “Foley” spelling — appeared.

According to some rabbis, matzo used during Passover seders must be made by Jews who utter a Hebrew phrase before rolling each batch of dough. Matzo consumed at other times during the eight-day holiday need not be mixed, kneaded, rolled, or baked by Jews, according to those rabbis.

Last week, a court of Jewish law, the Beth Din of Crown Heights, ruled that while the bakery’s matzo is kosher for Passover, some religious Jews should consider purchasing seder matzo elsewhere or from batches baked after the woman was laid off. Passover begins at sundown on Monday, April 2.

An inquiry into the woman’s religious background is ongoing, said Yitzchok Tenenbaum, who has been an owner of the Lubavitch Matzo Bakery for more than 20 years. “We told her that until we find out for sure, we couldn’t have her working here,” he said.

. . .

The employee at the center of the controversy, a Minsk native, was hired in October, when the bakery begins preparing Passover matzos. Her employment was terminated about two weeks ago. “From the information we have, it seems like she’s Jewish, but we still don’t feel 100% comfortable saying for sure,” Rabbi Zalman Osdoba, rabbinical coordinator of Crown Heights Kosher certification, said.

The spewing of the slur nearly 50 times in less than two hours angered the anti-n-word measure’s sponsor, Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens).

“If I had been the chair, I would have asked them not to use the word,” Comrie told The Post afterward. “I was not pleased.”

Marcia Harris, founder of the Harlem-based Ban the N-Word Movement, got the ball rolling with a passionate lecture on the word’s origins — that dropped the n-bomb a staggering 19 times.

“All of the other things will be for naught if, at the core, you see yourself and others who look like you as a n- – – – -, a word used to dehumanize a living, thinking human being,” she said during the hearing held by the council’s Civil Rights Committee.

The campaign to stop the use of the slur is aimed largely at young whites and blacks who aren’t aware of the term’s historical significance or don’t care. The measure, approved by the committee, will be taken up by the full council tomorrow.

Tim Gaylord, a New Jersey resident who told lawmakers he was instrumental in getting a similar measure passed in Irvington, N.J., used the word 10 times in his testimony.

He said using the word makes people think about blacks in a negative way.

“Fifty-thousand black people murdered and ain’t nobody saying anything about it. Why?” he asked. “It’s because it’s just n- – – – -s.”

Even some council members didn’t bother with euphemisms to make their points while sporting pins with a slash over the letter “N.”

Mike Nelson (D-Brooklyn), who was the only white person to use the word at the hearing, described a “sickening, scary, depressing” date he had in the 1960s while serving in the Air Force in Arkansas.

That is what happened at 6:55 a.m. yesterday, when the operator of a Queens-bound N train leaving the Lexington Avenue station radioed a dispatcher to say that the train was being delayed by a red signal that should have been green.

For many riders on the N, R and W trains, that was the beginning of a morning journey that was more headache than head-to-work.

. . .

The radio call from the N train went to a dispatcher at the Rail Control Center, the subway system’s computerized nerve center in Midtown. The dispatcher told the train operator to go slowly past the signal.

A call then went out to a pair of track maintainers based at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, two stops from the problem.

They jumped on a train and by 7:15 a.m. were at work at the Lexington Avenue station, according to John Johnson, the Rail Control Center’s assistant chief. They discovered a break in a rail about 1,200 feet from the east edge of the platform.

It was not unexpected. A red signal of the type that stopped the N train is often a result of cracked or broken rails, according to Antonio Cabrera, director of track engineering. That is because electrical power for the signal system flows through the rails, and a crack can break the circuit to the signal, sending it into its default red position.

“It was a clean break, like if you cut it with a knife,” said Mr. Cabrera after reading a report about the work. “It was up and down. It looked like a joint exactly.”

The cause of the break was not clear, Mr. Cabrera said, although the cold weather may have been a factor.

The metal contracts in the cold, he said, increasing stress on the rail, and small cracks can turn into large ones.

Once the break was discovered, Mr. Johnson said, dispatchers at the control center halted Queens-bound trains heading toward the Lexington Avenue station.

Now workers had two separate problems. The break had to be repaired, and trains had to be diverted.

A repair crew was called in and by 8:20 a.m. had set to work. Power to the third rail was cut on that section of track.

It contained two small display cases with 31 diamond rings tucked inside.

. . .

The woman, who said she was a jeweler, wanted to give Osman, an emigrant from Bangladesh, a handsome reward. He grudgingly accepted $100 as compensation for the income he didn’t make picking up passengers because he was on his mission to do the right thing.

“When I find something left in my cab, and I can return it to the owner, I feel very happy. I feel proud,” he said.

Osman drove the jeweler from the Hilton New York to an E. 35th St. apartment building Monday night. The fare was $10.70. She gave him a $20 and asked for $9 back.

He took the three-dime tip in stride.