Considering relocating to Fairmont, MN-need opinions (Mankato: hotels, Home Depot, movie theater)

[pfralic]

My husband and I are considering a couple of smaller cities to relocate to in two to three years when our youngest graduates high school. My husband is permanently disabled and cannot work due to a brain injury so we want to stay within about two hours of Mayo Clinic (he goes for periodic checkups). I work part-time jobs mostly because I care for him but also because my health isn't the greatest. We have investigated a few cities that have decent grocery stores, a post office, churches, movie theatres, restaurants, hotels and a Walmart close by. Fishing is one past time my husband can do with assistance that is important to us.

So Fairmont seems to fit the bill for us. Also we are looking at Charles City, IA. Nice sized smaller cities with the basics, but with a larger city within an hour nearby for bigger shopping like Menards, Home Depot, Sams Club, etc. For anyone living in Fairmont, are you pretty happy there? My husband and I pretty much stick to ourselves, but aren't complete hermits! Are the lakes pretty good, and clean?

[mn shutterbug]

Actually, there are very few lakes in the Fairmont area and the ones that are there are small and shallow. I think you'll be hard pressed to find any clean and clear lakes in the southern 3rd of the state. You'd have better choices by Mankato.

[Kamsack]

Our family nanny's parents live in Fairmont and love it there. I have visited there on several occasions and it is the city of lakes and very nice. Her family love on one lake and can connect to all of them. There is also a yacht swimming club which they belong too and our kids love to go down there for swimming there and also to play in the sand on one of their public beaches.

I dont know about clear quality....but lots of water activities for sure there.

[Kebinminn]

I lived there for a while and liked it. The chain of lakes is nice but I don't fish so I can't say much about the quality of fishing.

Mayo has an affiliated clinic there, the locals dislike it so you may want to research the quality of in-town healthcare.

[MFFM917]

I live in Fairmont when I'm not away at college. Haven't had a lot of experience with the Mayo Clinic, but everyone else says they're fairly good. HyVee and Fareway are the two main grocery stores, both are good. Plenty of churches in town. Movie theater is small but they play first-run movies. Good selection of restaurants. Few hotels near I-90. Walmart and Shopko are the two major retail stores in town. You can find the majority of your everyday needs within town, but if you need anything more, you'll have to travel to Mankato or the Twin Cities. The lakes are very nice and there's a lot of fishing during summer and ice-fishing during winter. Overall, if you don't mind that it's an hour drive to any larger city, it's a decent place to live. I don't plan on sticking around after college, but it should work for what you want.