By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The town should have the deed in two weeks for the building that will become the new town museum.

In April, the Town Council and local attorney Randy Peets announced Peets would buy the old Seacomm Main Street branch and give it to the town to become the Celine G. Philibert Cultural Center and Museum. The namesake is Peets’ partner of two decades, who died in 2013.

“The transition of the building should happen in the next two weeks. I expect the town will take title of that building. Mr. Peets has been talking to a contactor to do some work gratis, to make some renovations,” Town Supervisor Joseph Gray said Wednesday. “The interior work … won’t cost the town or the taxpayers a dime, thanks to the generosity of a local contractor.

“The one obligation we’ll have at some point is funding and closing the current drive-through for the (historic) fire engines.”
Gray said SUNY Potsdam museum studies students looked at the building and made some recommendations.

He said museum officials are reviewing their inventory to decide if everything is worth moving from the current East Orvis Street museum to their new home.
“Is everything they possess appropriate for Massena’s history … or can it be reduced in size,” he said.