By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The town continues to work with a local attorney in transferring the former Main Street Seacomm building to the town to be turned into a new museum.

Randy Peets and the Town Council announced in April that Peets would buy the building and give it to the town on the condition that it become the Celine G. Philibert Cultural Center and Museum.

“It is my understanding Mr. Peets is talking to someone about doing renovation work gratis before the building is turned over to us,” Town Supervisor Joseph Gray said Wednesday, adding that the work is all minor.

He said the SUNY Potsdam Museum Studies Department may also be involved in moving the Massena Museum from its East Orvis Street location to the new home.

“I think they have some ideas they want to talk to the museum board about,” Gray said.

There was a buyer interested in the current museum building, but they probably won’t buy since they need it by the start of the school year and the transition may not happen by then.

“They kind of needed it for private school-related function but they need it before the school year … I don’t see that happening,” Gray said.

The center’s namesake was Peets’ partner of 20 years. Philibert was a native of France, who moved to the United States to teach French in the SUNY Potsdam Modern Language Department. She died of cancer in December 2013.

In June, Seacomm vacated the property that will become the center, consolidating their Massena operations under a single roof on Stearns Street.