End of an era in Grantsburg

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

It’s closing time for Fiedler Ford.

Jerry Fiedler sat in a chair by the big picture window that looks over the east side of Main Street, Grantsburg, in a shop that he has overseen for the past forty-some years. By his side was his wife Norma, and daughter-in-law Julie, while his son Kraig took in the scene from the old service counter.

Today was the first day that Jerry wasn’t in charge.

“I just want to make sure everyone in Grantsburg knows how much they mean to me,” Jerry said as the new owners of the building, Derry Peterson and Pam Soules looked on.

Derry and Pam had been looking for a place to set up shop for quite a long time and then they found the building and “fell in love”.

The new business name is “Legenderry Auto Body”, a play on Derry’s name.

It will be an auto body shop and will specialize in classic and vintage cars. “I used to do traditional vehicles, but kinda got tired of working on mini-vans all the time,” Derry said, “I enjoy working on older cars a lot more and that’s what gets me excited.”

Derry will be moving on from his current position at Diamond Collision in Webster. His fiancee Pam, who has a background in event planning, will be joining him full time in this venture.

The couple says they don’t plan on changing much about the building at all. “It just has so much character,” Pam observed.

It was very important to the couple that Jerry and his family and his business were respected during this time of transition. “Jerry has been so good to work with. It’s been such a pleasure to work with him in purchasing the building,” Pam said.

They’re tentatively hoping for a September 26th open date but will need to see how things progress. They are planning an open house for the community when the time gets closer.

The subject of the Big Gust Days car show was brought up and the couple is looking forward to speaking with Ben and Nicki Peterson of Brickfield Brewing (the Petersons have taken over the car show since Jerry stepped back from it a couple of years ago) to see if they’d like any help running the show.

Both Derry and Pam say they are looking forward to being a big part of the community and they have heard Grantsburg is a great place to live and work.

They live in a cabin eight miles west of Frederic and will be getting married in October, as the pandemic delayed their original plans of a spring wedding.