City of Owen, Clark County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

No ranked list of major employers with headcounts for Owen was found in a primary source.

The municipality is the City of Owen, an incorporated city in Clark County, Wisconsin (Census place GEOID 5560825).

Owen is a city, not a town or village, governed by a mayor and a six-member common council elected two per ward from three wards.

Census also records Owen city as a county subdivision in Clark County (GEOID 5501960825), with the same land area as the place record.

No other Wisconsin county subdivision named Owen appears in the Census 2024 gazetteer; this profile covers only the Clark County city.

The City of Owen covers 2.298 square miles of land and 0.076 square miles of water.

Owen's Census internal point is near 44.94909, -90.561117.

The city describes itself as located on State Highway 29, about 30 miles northwest of Marshfield and about 70 miles east of Eau Claire.

The 2020 Census counted 916 residents in the City of Owen.

The Wisconsin DOA estimates Owen's population at 917 as of January 1, 2025.

The Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 estimate for Owen is 903 as of July 1, 2024, from a 2020 estimates base of 910.

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimate of Owen's population is 884 (+/-182).

The ACS 2019-2023 median age in Owen is 40.9 years (+/-8.1).

The ACS 2019-2023 median household income in Owen is $58,611 (+/-$9,775).

The ACS 2019-2023 median value of owner-occupied homes in Owen is $125,500 (+/-$27,531).

Scott Jalling is Mayor of Owen.

The council's alderpersons are Jason Thornton and Ken Martine (1st Ward), Pamela Jaffke and Bob Wilczek (2nd Ward), and John Mauel and Ray Kilty (3rd Ward); Pamela Jaffke is Council President.

Tracy Rau is Clerk and Treasurer (715-229-2404, [email address]), and Kelly Booth is Deputy Clerk.

City Hall is at 833 W. 3rd Street (PO Box 67), Owen, WI 54460, open Monday through Thursday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The city's 2025 council list shows regular meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, 23 dates in all.

Agendas and minutes post on the city website's Agendas & Minutes page, filterable by 17 bodies, including the City Council, Library Board, O-W Police Committee, Owen-Withee Sewer Commission and Owen Junior Fair Committee, with a year archive back to 2009.

The city's official website is cityofowen.com.

The Owen-Withee Police Department, at 833 W. 3rd Street, polices the City of Owen and the Village of Withee; Patrick Fehlman is Chief of Police.

Chad Smith is Public Works Director, and the Owen-Withee Sewer Commission has Owen, Withee and Kerry representatives.

The whole city lies in the Owen-Withee School District.

Owen-Withee School District (NCES 5511310) is a PK-12 district of 3 schools with 481 students and 34.56 FTE classroom teachers in 2024-25, based at 832 W 3rd St, Owen; NCES codes its locale Rural, Remote.

Owen-Withee Elementary, Owen-Withee Junior High and Owen-Withee High all list 832 W 3rd St, Owen, as their address.

Clark County had 779 business establishments and 9,517 paid employees in 2023, including 3,947 in manufacturing.

The city markets two business parks at the Highway 29 interchange: the roughly 38-acre East Side Commercial Park north of the highway and a 150-acre agribusiness park south of it with about 70 acres available.

The city is developing Countryside Estates, a housing subdivision on the east side along County Highway D.

The county economic development corporation's Owen profile lists local businesses including Kerry Ingredients, Badger Precision Inc, River Country Co-Op, Prevail Bank and Martin's Fresh Market.

The Enterprise Sentinel & Rural News is a newspaper at 106 E. 5th Street, Owen (715-229-2103), publishing online at esonline.news.

WVCS (90.1 FM) is licensed to Owen; its licensee is VCY America, Inc.

Owen Public Library is at 414 N. Central Avenue (715-229-2939), open Monday through Friday, noon to 6 p.m., and belongs to the Wisconsin Valley Library System.

The Owen-Withee-Curtiss Fire & EMS District, headquartered at the Owen Station, 427 E. Third St., provides fire and EMS to the City of Owen, the Villages of Withee and Curtiss, and the Towns of Longwood, Green Grove, Hixon, Hoard and Maplehurst (Taylor County), a district of 180 square miles; Travis Serocki is Chief.

The district staffs three ambulances with Advanced EMTs, EMTs and Emergency Medical Responders, and runs apparatus from the Owen and Curtiss stations.

The city lists an Owen Post Office (715-229-2949), and city addresses use ZIP 54460.

The county EDC profile lists Aspirus Owen Clinic, the Clark County VA Clinic, Clark County Rehab & Living and Owen Family Dental Center among Owen healthcare providers.

Owen's city parks are open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Crowley Park Campground rents first-come sites at $18 a night or $120 a week, and Mill Pond Park has a band pavilion and a concession stand for rent.

The city highlights the Popple River Trail, including the confluence of the Popple River and Britt Creek.

The county EDC profile describes a paved bike trail from Owen to the Village of Withee and a nine-hole golf course.

Owen Pond 5 is a named reservoir in Clark County at 44.9498, -90.5674, near the city's Census internal point.

The annual Owen Junior Fair includes a parade led by local veterans.

The 2026 Owen Junior Fair ran September 11, 12 and 13, billed as celebrating 78 years.

The city promoted the Annual Owen Main Street Car Show, held August 16, 2025.

A brat fry on Friday, May 29, 2026, raised money for the bike trail.

The city runs water, sewer and refuse billing; a typical residential quarterly base charge totals $118.02 before usage, with water at $6.66 and sewer at $10.10 per thousand gallons.

The city's timeline records the railroad reaching the Owen area in 1880, the John S. Owen Lumber Co. buying 30,000 acres in 1882, the first schoolhouse in 1894 and the first post office in 1895.

Owen incorporated as a village in 1905 and as a city in 1925, according to the city's timeline.

The county EDC profile instead says John S. Owen founded the city in 1883 and that it incorporated in 1904, which conflicts with the city's own dates.

The same timeline lists the first bank in 1907, the first library in 1915, the Owen Medical Center opening in 1955, the millpond dredging in 2004 and the Owen-Withee Police Department in 2018.

Two Owen properties are on the National Register of Historic Places: Owen High School (listed August 11, 2004) and the Woodland Hotel (listed May 10, 2016).

The Historic Preservation Committee names the Old City Hall at 219 N. Pine St. and the F. N. E. Depot as city-owned historic buildings; John Mauel chairs the committee.