Town of Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

No newspaper of record for Town of Wausau legal notices was identified.

The municipality is the Town of Wausau, a civil town in Marathon County, Wisconsin (Census county subdivision GEOID 5507384500; WI DOA code 37080).

The Town of Wausau is a separate municipality from the City of Wausau. The WI DOA 2025 workbook carries them as distinct rows: Town of Wausau (2,161 in 2020) and City of Wausau (39,994 in 2020).

The town lies adjacent to and immediately east of the City of Wausau. It comprises 36 sections in Township 29 North, Range 8 East, and much of it is rural.

Voters elect a town chair, two supervisors, a town clerk, and a town treasurer. All five positions are elected in April of odd-numbered years to two-year terms.

The town covers 32.263 square miles of land and no water area.

The town's Census internal point is near 44.990137 N, 89.547438 W.

The unincorporated community of Nutterville lies in the town, and the community of Sunset lies partly in it.

GNIS records Nutterville (45.0038573, -89.5273422) and Sunset (45.0033017, -89.4920636) as named populated places in Marathon County.

The town's municipal center and clerk use a Wausau, WI 54403 mailing address.

Major creeks in the town are Big Sandy Creek in the southeast corner, Prahl Creek running north-south through the eastern half, and Moore Creek in the northwest corner. Most of the town's 100-year floodplain lies along Big Sandy Creek.

State Highway 52 runs east-west through the town, County Highway Z parallels it to the south, County Highway X links south to State Highway 29 in Weston, County Highway J forms the eastern boundary, and County Highway N (Town Line Road) forms the southern border.

About three-quarters of town roads are paved: 44 of 56 miles.

The 2020 Census counted 2,161 residents in the Town of Wausau.

The Wisconsin DOA estimates 2,204 residents as of January 1, 2025, with a voting-age population of 1,746.

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimate of total population is 2,141 (plus or minus 234).

The ACS 2019-2023 median age is 52.3 years (plus or minus 6.1).

The ACS 2019-2023 median household income is $80,750 (plus or minus $20,120).

The ACS 2019-2023 median value of owner-occupied homes is $219,200 (plus or minus $44,070).

The town describes itself as having 2,200 residents in 883 households, mostly in owner-occupied single-family homes.

The town's plan attributes its slow population growth partly to annexations to the City of Wausau, driven by the need for public sewer and water.

The 2000 Census counted 2,214 residents in 796 households.

Matt Baer is the town chairperson.

Steve Buntin is a town supervisor, and the town's website lists the other supervisor seat as vacant.

Sharon Hunter is the town clerk (715-212-1672, [email address]), and Amy Meyer is deputy clerk and handles election scheduling.

Susie Borchardt is the town treasurer.

The Town Board meets on the first Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Town of Wausau Municipal Center, unless the board sets otherwise by resolution.

The Town of Wausau Municipal Center is at 161484 County Road Z, Wausau; the town phone is (715) 551-9134, and office hours are by appointment only.

The official website is townofwausau.com. Its Meetings page loads agendas and minutes from a meeting repository, with Town Board records posted through a scheduled October 5, 2026 meeting.

Town ordinances must be published or posted as provided by Wis. Stat. 60.80 and take effect only once published or posted.

The town's Code of Ordinances was adopted July 6, 2015 and amended repeatedly, most recently in April 2026 (the cover reads April 4, 2026). The town also has its own zoning ordinance, zoning map, and a comprehensive plan adopted in 2021 and amended in 2024.

A Planning Commission established under Wis. Stat. 62.23, chaired by Matt Baer, hears conditional uses and zoning amendments and recommends to the Town Board.

A five-member Board of Appeals with two alternates, serving staggered three-year terms, hears zoning variances and administrative appeals and meets only when needed.

On August 3, 2026, after a Planning Commission hearing attended by 14 residents, the Town Board approved a data center zoning ordinance. It allows data facilities only in the manufacturing / general industry district by conditional use permit, with 200-foot structure setbacks, a 60 dBA noise limit at property lines, and a 35-foot height cap.

The data center ordinance notice defines a data center to include cryptocurrency mining, blockchain transaction processing, and server farms.

Fourteen residents attended the August 3, 2026 data center ordinance hearing, and residents agreed the town should move forward with the ordinance.

The Town Board adopted a No Through Truck Traffic Ordinance on August 3, 2026.

The Town Board scheduled a noon meeting on September 23, 2026 at the Municipal Center to develop the 2027 budget.

The Wausau School District serves most of the town. Small portions north of Town Line Road and west of County Highway J are in the D.C. Everest School District.

No operating public or private school is located in the town.

The Wausau School District (NCES 5515900) operates 18 schools and enrolled 7,738 students in 2024-25.

The D.C. Everest Area School District (NCES 5513170) operates 12 schools and enrolled 5,847 students in 2024-25.

Farming has given way somewhat to a small but significant bedroom community of commuters and hobby farm owners.

Businesses in the town are small, such as landscaping, a cabinet shop, a repair shop, excavation, builders, nurseries and tree farms, and bars and restaurants, mostly along county roads or state highways.

Commercial land uses concentrate along County Highway X south of County Highway Z and between County Highway Z and State Highway 52.

In 2018, 1,350 town residents were employed, up 19.6 percent from 1,129 in 2010. Manufacturing (290), trade, transportation and utilities (267), and education and health services (251) employed the most.

The town provides no public sewer or water. All development uses private wells and septic systems, and access to city sewer and water is a primary driver of annexation.

The town publishes a newsletter twice a year, in March and October, and posts back issues from 2019 on its website.

The town runs a volunteer fire department, Fire Department #37240, which town electors authorized at a special meeting on January 1, 1987. The code caps membership at 30 firefighters and first responders.

Kyle Borchardt is the fire chief. The department meets the first and third Tuesday of every month.

In 2025 the fire department answered 122 calls: 13 fire, 86 medical, 15 crashes, 6 mutual aid, and 2 MABAS. It kept an ISO rating of 6.

The town contracts with the City of Wausau for ambulance service, and the Marathon County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement.

The Marathon County Public Library system serves the town from its headquarters on First Street in downtown Wausau.

The Marathon County Public Library is a public library outlet in Wausau.

No hospital lies in the town. The plan names Aspirus Hospital and Ascension St. Clare's as the two area hospitals.

Garbage pickup is weekly and recycling every other week under a private contract with Advanced Disposal, and there is no spring or fall cleanup in 2026 because of cost.

The town owns and operates no public parks. Nearby are the City of Wausau's 70-acre Sylvan Hill Park, a winter-sports park with a sledding hill, and Sandy Creek Park on Highway J in the Town of Easton, maintained by the Easton, Hewitt, and Wausau Lions Club.

Every town road is a designated ATV/UTV route (amended December 6, 2021), under Marathon County Ordinance 7.125, with a 35 mph cap.

Marathon County owns the undeveloped Wisconsin River Park north of the town, about 290 acres, roughly half on the east bank of the Wisconsin River in the Town of Texas and the other half in Maine.

The 10th annual Town of Wausau town-wide garage sale ran May 15 to 17, 2026, with residents holding sales at their own addresses and sponsors funding maps and address lists.

The fire department's annual picnic and 5K run/walk fundraiser was set for Sunday, September 20, 2026 at the fire department and municipal center. The prior September's event raised $27,500.

The annual town meeting was held Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at the Municipal Center.

The town begins on a high granite ridge at the city's eastern edge. Mill workers who built homes there gave it the name Mechanic's Ridge, still used for the State Highway 52 corridor east of the city.

German immigrants later joined the first settlers and many took up farming. Nutterville grew around Nutterville Hall on State Highway 52, named for James Nutter, one of the original 'mechanics', and the hall served as a community center.

Sunset, on the eastern boundary with Easton, dates to 1867. It was a crossroads community for farmers along Big Sandy Creek, with a church, school, tavern, and cheese factory.

No property in the town is on the National Register of Historic Places. Nine town properties have been surveyed into the Wisconsin Architecture & History Inventory.