ABOVE: The My Town Series will be filming in Fairmont next week and the episode is expected to be released this coming fall.

FAIRMONT– The city of Fairmont will be featured in the second season of the My Town Series. Host Cory Hepola will be in town early next week to film some of Fairmont’s highlights and it’s expected the episode will air this coming fall. The Fairmont feature is made possible through a partnership between Visit Fairmont, Fairmont Economic Development Authority (FEDA) and the Fairmont Area School District.

Fairmont’s Economic Development Coordinator, Ned Koppen, said he had found out about the My Town Series through an organization that he’s involved in and he later learned that Visit Fairmont’s Brittany Hartman had learned about this type of video independently.

“We had a conversation because we were both thinking about the same thing. We looked at a couple of companies that do this… we went back and forth and decided we liked Cory best. We applied and got lucky and got into season two,” Koppen said.

Soon after those conversations happened, Koppen was at a Bureau 14 meeting in September 2024 and mentioned the series to Fairmont Area Schools Superintendent, Andy Traetow, who also had interest in being involved.

Traetow said the district had already been looking at how to promote the district and highlight the community and its assets. Through the interaction at the Chamber event, Traetow said he showed interest and when he learned more, the district came on board.

“It’s such a unique opportunity to highlight our community. Without our community, our school district doesn’t exist,” Traetow said. “Anytime we have the opportunity to collaborate with local organizations, we see it as a benefit to our school district.”

He said that’s also in line with the vision and mission of the district which is to be a leading and innovative school district.

The three entities agreed to join and split the funding of the project three ways. While it wasn’t inexpensive, the split made it doable for each. All three believe they will benefit from being featured on the series and are looking at it as a recruitment tool.

“From a tourism standpoint, our goal is to get people to come to Fairmont. And like our mission statement says, ‘it all starts with a visit,’ so it made sense to collaborate with FEDA and the school district. A visit can lead to people living here, building here, going to school here,” said Hartman.

Traetow said the district is trying to attract employees to the community who may have a family that is also looking at the community.

“We have every intent to use the product of this video as a component in our recruitment and drawing attention to the great things we have in Fairmont,” Traetow said.

Koppen said that when businesses are looking at Fairmont as a potential location, this is a chance to show them the breadth of the community and all it has to offer.

“It’s a great opportunity to make people aware of the quality of life and lifestyle we have to offer,” Koppen said.

Filming at this time of year was intentional and over two days, locations have been carefully selected to film at.

“We have such a cool community that contrasts with this huge ag presence and economy, but you combine that with the lakes and the green space. From my viewpoint, right in the middle of summer seemed to be best,” Koppen said.

Some of the highlights will include the school, family opportunities, lifestyle including lakes and amenities. Ag and economy and the business community will also be featured.

When all is said and done, the video will be about 25 to 30 minutes long. Fairmont is one of eight communities that will be featured in season two of the series.

Other communities include Watford City, ND, Linton, ND, Watertown, SD, Chamberlain, SD, Grand Island, NE, Rock Valley, IA and St. Joseph, MN.

The episodes can be found on YouTube.

“When we get it, I intend to have it live on our website and we can cut it up and use it on social media,” Koppen said.

Both Hartman and Traetow agreed that they plan to have the video available on their organization’s websites as well.

Right now, they’re excited to get filming underway.

“The theme of all of these videos is why people choose to live rural or in small towns. Fairmont is a hidden gem and people aren’t aware of everything that’s here until they really get into town. This is an opportunity to share all of the things we have on a wider platform,” Koppen said.