Town of Eau Pleine, Marathon County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

No named major employer located in the town was found in a primary source.

No hospital or clinic located in the town was confirmed from a source read this session.

The municipality is the Town of Eau Pleine, a civil town in Marathon County, Wisconsin (Census county subdivision GEOID 5507322425).

This Eau Pleine is the Marathon County town; a separate Town of Eau Pleine in Portage County (GEOID 5509722450, 1,063 residents in 2020) is a different municipality.

The town lies in west-central Marathon County, bounded by the Town of Frankfort to the north, the Town of Brighton to the west, the Town of Cleveland and Village of Stratford to the east, and the Town of McMillan to the south.

The Town of Eau Pleine covers 33.213 square miles of land and 0.007 square miles of water.

The town's Census internal point is near 44.81486, -90.133489.

USGS GNIS places the named communities of Little Rose, March Rapids, Weber and Staadts (historical) inside the town.

The name Eau Pleine comes from a French phrase usually rendered 'full water'.

The 2020 Census counted 769 residents in the Town of Eau Pleine.

The Wisconsin DOA's January 1, 2025 final estimate for the town is 774 residents.

The ACS 2019-2023 five-year estimate of the town's population is 1,134 (margin of error +/-161), well above the 2020 census count of 769.

The town's ACS 2019-2023 median age is 43.7 years (+/-0.3).

The town's ACS 2019-2023 median household income is $68,602 (+/-$463).

The town's ACS 2019-2023 median value of owner-occupied homes is $264,600 (+/-$7,934).

A three-member voting town board governs Eau Pleine: a chairperson and two supervisors, supported by an elected clerk and treasurer who do not vote.

Mark Radke is Town Chairman, and Kurt Schwarze and Brian Radke are Town Supervisors.

Heather Kops is Town Clerk and Shirley Hein is Town Treasurer; James (Jim) Kurtzweil is the Town Assessor.

The state Municipal Data System lists Heather Kops as clerk of the Town of Eau Pleine (DOA code 37020), with a mailing address of 111630 Equity Street, Stratford.

The town board meets monthly at the Town Hall, 111630 Equity St., Stratford; the September 2026 meeting convened Tuesday, September 8 at 7:30 p.m.

The annual town meeting is held the third Tuesday of April; in 2026 it was April 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Meeting notices post on the town website and on outdoor message boards at the Town Hall and the Recycling Center; minutes post on the website's Meeting Minutes page.

The town posts board minutes online back to 2020, including special meetings of electors; in 2026 it held a special meeting of electors on July 13 and special board meetings on May 26, June 30, July 21 and August 18.

The official town website is townofeaupleinemc.org.

The town adopted an updated comprehensive plan in the summer of 2022.

Building (zoning) permits come from Marathon County, and the town issues no burning permits.

The Stratford School District covers the Town of Eau Pleine.

The Stratford School District enrolled 774 students with 57.50 full-time-equivalent classroom teachers in 2024-2025 across three schools.

Agriculture dominates the town: farmland covers 13,454 acres (63 percent), mostly dairy and associated crops, and three dairy operations have 1,000 animal units or more.

The town plan reports 555 employed residents and a 1.9 percent unemployment rate in 2019.

Marathon County had 3,436 business establishments and 65,770 paid employees in 2023.

The town's own News page links Record-Review coverage (2024-2025) of its wind energy facility licensing ordinance and a legal challenge to it, plus an October 15, 2024 Marshfield News-Herald article on appointed versus elected clerk and treasurer.

The town is part of a joint fire and EMS department with the Village of Stratford; the Marathon County Sheriff's Office provides police protection.

The Marathon County Public Library's Stratford Branch, in the Village of Stratford, serves the town.

The Town Hall and Shop are at 111630 Equity St., Stratford, WI 54484, just east of County Highway E.

The town runs a staffed Garbage and Recycling Center at 214453 March Rapids Ave., Stratford, and offers no curbside garbage pickup.

The town has no public water or sewer: homes use private wells and on-site septic systems, most of them holding tanks.

March Rapids Park, 113322 County Hwy P, is a town park given by Marathon County, with a covered shelter, grills, picnic tables and outdoor toilets but no potable water.

The Big Eau Pleine River is the main river through the town, and Noisy Creek runs through its center; the plan lists the Big Eau Pleine as impaired for low dissolved oxygen.

Settlement began when a sawmill was built near March Rapids in 1877, and the town was organized in 1884.

The 1913 county history says the town was set off from the Town of Brighton on November 14, 1884, with Edward Lessig as first chairman, and names the "Stadts" mill and the Dowd, Sons & Co. mill at March Rapids.

After lumbering declined, dairying rose: the Stratford Cooperative Creamery formed in 1919, and as many as seven cheese factories operated in the area in the 1930s. The town has no National or State Register listings, but 78 homes date to 1939 or earlier.