Town of Rietbrock, Marathon County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

No list of major employers located in the Town of Rietbrock was found in a primary source.

No newspaper of record for Rietbrock notices was identified in a town document read this session.

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

The municipality is the Town of Rietbrock, a civil town in Marathon County, Wisconsin (Census county subdivision GEOID 5507367950).

Rietbrock is a town governed by a chairman and two supervisors, not a city or village.

No other Wisconsin county subdivision named Rietbrock appears in the Census 2024 gazetteer; the name recalls Frederick Rietbrock, whose land operations centered on nearby Athens.

The Town of Rietbrock covers 33.906 square miles of land and no measured water area.

Rietbrock's Census internal point is near 44.987955, -90.020351.

The town lies in northwest Marathon County, bounded by the Towns of Halsey (north), Johnson (west), Rib Falls (east) and Wien (south), with the Village of Athens on its northwest border.

The unincorporated community of Poniatowski is in the town and was its commercial center in the 1880s; GNIS places Poniatowski at 44.9950, -89.9935.

The point where the 45th parallel meets the 90th meridian lies in the town and is marked by the 45°N - 90°W Geographic Marker.

The Rietbrock Municipal Hall is at 125354 Cherry Grove Lane, Edgar, WI 54426 (715-257-7014, [email address]).

The 2020 Census counted 874 residents in the Town of Rietbrock.

The Wisconsin DOA estimates Rietbrock's population at 869 as of January 1, 2025.

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimate of Rietbrock's population is 870 (+/-131).

The ACS 2019-2023 median age in Rietbrock is 48.9 years (+/-3.1).

The comprehensive plan reports the town's median age rose from 39.7 in 2010 to 49.4 in 2022, well above the county's 41.0.

The ACS 2019-2023 median household income in Rietbrock is $84,375 (+/-$13,988).

The ACS 2019-2023 median value of owner-occupied homes in Rietbrock is $231,900 (+/-$59,634).

Todd Thurs is Town Chairman.

Timothy O'Brien and Bradly Murkowski are Town Supervisors.

Jody Davis is Town Clerk (715-257-7014) and books the Municipal Hall.

The staff page lists Sherry Literski as Treasurer, but the April 2026 newsletter says the town is seeking a resident to fill the Treasurer position for the rest of the term, through April 2027.

Duane Rauen is Zoning Administrator, James Kurtzweil is the contracted assessor, and Wayne Mauer chairs the Plan Commission.

The Town Board meets on the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Rietbrock Town Hall, 125354 Cherry Grove Lane; the Plan Commission meets as needed at 7:00 p.m.

Agendas and meeting notes post on the town website, and notes appear only after the board approves them at a regular meeting.

The agendas page lists the 2026 Annual Town Meeting on April 21, 2026.

The town adopted an updated comprehensive plan on October 14, 2024.

Town zoning permits are required for construction valued at $5,000 or more; new-home floor area minimums are 1,000 square feet single story and 1,500 square feet for split-level, two-story or bi-level homes.

The town's official website is townofrietbrock.com.

Two school districts cover the town: Athens (about 75 percent of its area) and Edgar (about 25 percent).

Athens School District (NCES 5500570) is a PK-12 district of 4 schools with 417 students in 2024-25, based at 601 West Limits Road, Athens; the plan notes it also runs Maple Grove Elementary in the Town of Hamburg.

Edgar School District (NCES 5504080) is a PK-12 district of 3 schools with 575 students in 2024-25, based at 203 E Birch St, Edgar.

Marathon County had 3,436 business establishments and 65,770 paid employees in 2023, including 18,923 in manufacturing.

Development in the town is dominated by agriculture, with pockets of residences and scattered commercial establishments.

The town shares a fire district with the Villages of Athens and Edgar, and charges $1,000 for every fire call.

The Marathon County Sheriff's Office provides police protection and E-911 dispatch.

The nearest Marathon County Public Library branches are in Athens (221 Caroline St., about 2,750 square feet) and Edgar (224 S. Third Ave., about 2,046 square feet).

Two cemeteries lie within the town, both on Cherry Grove Lane.

The town disposal and recycling site on County Road M is open to town residents only, every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Municipal Hall uses an Edgar (54426) address and the clerk an Athens (54411) address.

The 45°N - 90°W Geographic Marker is the town's only park facility, with a quarter-mile gravel path, picnic tables and a surveyor's marker and monument sign.

Black Creek, a tributary of the Big Rib River, runs across the northern part of the town and is its main waterbody; the plan lists it as impaired for high phosphorus.

Rib Falls County Park, 315 acres on the Big Rib River, lies about three miles east in the Town of Rib Falls.

A tire and waste-oil collection for residents and an electronics recycling day open to anyone were set for Saturday, October 10, 2026, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Municipal Hall.

Each spring the town applies liquid chloride dust control on request, with order forms due May 1 and application in late May or early June.

State Highway 29 forms the town's southern border, County Highway H its eastern border and State Highway 97 its western border, and County Highways M and U cross the town.

The town site says Rietbrock was established in 1880.

Milwaukee attorney Frederick Rietbrock bought land in the area from the 1870s, controlling some 50,000 acres across the Halsey, Johnson and Rietbrock townships, and centered his operation at Black Creek Falls, later Athens.

Polish immigrants from Milwaukee settled Poniatowski on Rietbrock land in 1878, and by the 1880s the town had more than 400 people.

Rietbrock built the Abbotsford and Northeastern Railway, completed by 1891, to link his Athens sawmill with Dorchester.

The plan reports no town properties on the National or State Register of Historic Places or the Wisconsin Architectural History Inventory.