By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The Potsdam IGA store, 27 Elm St., will change hands next month.

Kirk and Todd LaVigne, brothers from the Malone area, have a tentative takeover date of May 22, depending on state action on their beer license application.

Chip and LuAnn Cross, who bought the Potsdam IGA business in 2006, are moving to Oneida, were they will be opening a new Save-A-Lot store there in June.

Chip Cross said he was confident the LaVignes will make a good showing in the Potsdam store. He said they have plenty of experience and are planning improvements to the store.

Chip said when he and LuAnn decided to move on, before they found a buyer for the Potsdam store, he believed a new owner would come forward.

"I don't think it's ever going to go away. It's a fixture in the community," he said.

There has been a market in one name or another at the 27 Elm Street site for decades.

Kirk LaVigne, who with his brother owns other IGAs in the Brasher Falls area and Chateaugay, said the family has been in the supermarket business since their father started in 1974.

The pair plan major renovations to the inside and outside of the Potsdam store.

"We're going to be doing major renovations to the store and the building," Kirk said. "We'll be doing a lot of things to make some improvements."

He said he and his brother spend a lot of time at the store while that work proceeds