BY CRAIG WENZEL

TRUE DAKOTAN EDITOR

The General Motors dealership in Wessington Springs has been scheduled to be closed as part of the company’s nationwide move to eliminate nearly one in five of its franchises.

Springs Auto, Inc. received notice from the parent company on Friday, May 15 that they had until October-2010 to sell General Motors products.

“It is currently in an appeals process for thirty days,” said Jeff Reider, service manager at Springs Auto. “All we can do for now is wait and see… we won’t know until they get back to us.”

The announcement came on the heels of a nationwide cutback by the Chrysler motors corporation that chopped 1,900 dealerships the day before GM’s news.

Springs Auto, Inc. owner Lawrence Caffee took over the Wessington Springs General Motors dealership in 1980. “We sure appreciate the people who bought General Motors vehicles from us,” he said. “We are going to remain a Ford dealer,” he continued, “and we will offer General Motors until October of 2010… or maybe longer.”

The Caffee family is one of the top employers in Wessington Springs with 27 people on the payroll at Springs Auto, Caffee Farms and Humm Dinger Convenience Store. Family members involved include Lawrence and Ada Caffee, their son Jerry Caffee and their daughter and son-in-law Mary and Jeff Reider.

Aside from Ford and General Motors products, the family also offers used cars and pickups, used farm equipment, semi-trucks, scrapers, loaders, and new Travalong trailers and new CanAm four-wheelers.

“Our shop will remain open and service will go on as is,” Caffee said. “If GM goes out of Wessington Springs we will still be here.”

That should be good news to the Caffee family employees who rely on the businesses for their weekly paycheck as well as medical insurance and benefits. It is also good news to the community and people who recognize the need to shop at home in order to maintain a viable hometown in a small rural market.

True Dakotan photo/Duke Wenzel