Small Towns Don’t Need Big-City Spending to Modernize
Rural communities across the Midwest have long felt pressure to keep pace with urban centers — adopting the same sprawling infrastructure projects, expensive software platforms, and multi-year implementation timelines that larger cities favor. For a place like Fairmont, Minnesota, that pressure can feel both urgent and financially impossible. But the assumption driving it deserves a closer look. The reality is that modernization doesn't require massive investment. Across the country, small towns are finding that targeted, low-overhead solutions often deliver better outcomes for ...