Poland Sales and Service to Close

An Effingham business that has been operating for more than 50 years plans to close in the near future.

Poland Sales and Service will be closing their service operation at the end of next week. Bill Wear of Poland's said the business will continue to sell pre-owned vehicles and rent out vehicles until the inventory is depleted.

Bob and Nina Poland lived in Vandalia when they purchased Pendlay Pontiac on Henrietta Street in 1957. They moved to Effingham three years later. The dealership relocated to East Fayette to an existing building and then constructed their current building in 1976.

Poland Pontiac-Buick suffered a blow in 2010 when General Motors as part of their recovery from financial problems ceased manufacturing Pontiac vehicles and then decided to consolidate Buick and GMC sales operations, and the Buick sales were awarded to Russ Braunecker, who was already selling GMC and Cadillac vehicles.

Wear said, "It's time to retire." September would mark his 50th year with Poland's. He said Gary Poland, Bob and Nina's son, has been there almost as long, and it's time to move on to new opportunities. He said the younger generation of Poland family members are looking into various pursuits.