FAQ

Dial 911 !! Your call is sent to Wausau and the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department dispatch center. Remember in all emergency situations the information you give is essential to the response that will occur. Be sure to fully explain the emergency assistance needed to the dispatcher. Give your full street address (e.g. 113904 Elm Tree Road, Marshfield, WI 54449). (It may be helpful to tell the dispatcher that you are calling from the Town of McMillan.) Stay on the line if possible when making a 911 call. Sometimes additional information or directions are needed.

In the case of a medical emergency the Marshfield ambulance is dispatched along with the McMillan First Responders. There will be a charge for the ambulance service.

In the case of a fire, the McMillan Volunteer Fire Department will respond from our fire station by the town hall. For structural fires, a mutual aide call is also sent to either the Hewitt Fire Department or the Stratford Fire Department. In large fires both departments will be called along with equipment and needed man power from the Town of Lincoln and Spencer Departments. The resident will be billed for time and materials for any fire call.

If a police officer is needed, the dispatch center will send a Marathon County sheriff’s officer. There may be a delay as often only 5 officers are on duty. These officers cover a 30 mile by 70 mile county. There may only be one officer in the SE part of Marathon County. Mutual aid response from the Village of Stratford, Spencer or other law enforcement agencies may occur.

The frequency of need is not yet present. The cost of providing our own police protection or even contracting with the county or other existing departments for additional coverage is prohibitive. It was estimated in 2000 that it would cost more than $55,000 a year to provide a car and officer for an additional 8 hours a week. If immediate police response is required, Marathon County has mutual aid agreements with Stratford and Marshfield Police Departments. Residents of McMillan choose to live in a rural setting. It is a great life style. However, one draw back is potentially slower response times.

Place your recycling in these containers and set them at the end of your driveway the night before your scheduled pickup time. In some areas of the town, pickup can begin before 6 AM.

Recycle aluminum cans, glass containers (clean without cap), clean plastic bottles and containers marked #1 (PET or PETE) or # 2 (HDPE), and tin cans (clean with labels removed). These can be put in the same recycling bin. Place corrugated cardboard, mixed papers, and newspapers in another recycling bin. A more detailed list is on the back of your recycling schedule. A word of caution. Be careful not to include sensitive personal information in recycled paper unless shredded.

Obtain a burning permit for all open burning. If you are burning without a permit and the fire department is called by a concerned passerby you will be billed for all fire response costs. If the fire should get away from your control, you are liable for all fire department costs and any damage caused by the fire.

A burning permit is required to burn brush, grass or other clean materials. Please contact the town clerk and/or fire chief for authorization not more then 24 hours prior to burning. By ordinance all open burning shall be performed in a safe pollution free manner, when wind and weather conditions allow burning without adverse affects. Open burning shall not be used to burn refuse, garbage, plastic, construction debris or other prohibited materials. The materials being burned shall be at least 50 feet away from any structure unless in an approved burning device at least 15 feet from any structure. No burning is allowed on the public right-of -way. State law restricts burning on Sundays and holidays. Please be considerate of your neighbors when burning any material. Be aware of wind direction and conditions when burning. During dry conditions be sure to check if burning bans are in effect. Open burning (not in a container) is restricted much of the year.

No, the town of McMillan will not remove snow from private drives except in an emergency, nor does it do any other type of driveway service for individuals.

• Keeping town roads open and maintained fully utilizes our employees and equipment.
• The small size of most driveways make efficient use of our large highway equipment impractical.
• Our large equipment is not maneuverable in small private drives.
• There is potential liability for damage to residential properties and increased risk of damage to town equipment.
• A municipality should not be in competition with private snow removal operators or other construction companies.

Dog Licenses will be issued by the Treasurer during tax collection hours. Please bring a copy of the current Rabies Vaccination Certificate for each dog you will be licensing. No license will be issued without the certificate. All dogs must be licensed by April 1 or a late fee of $5.00 per dog will be charged. 

The needed forms to apply for a license are enclosed with your taxes each year. These forms or licenses can also be obtained from our treasurer at the Town Hall (113904 Elm Tree Road, 715-389-1338). Before a license can be issued, you must furnish a current rabies vaccination certificate. After April 1, a late fee will be charged for dog licenses issued. Money collected from dog licenses is sent to Marathon County.

Dogs at Large: Please call the Constable at 715-305-6471.

Dogs at Large: Please call the Constable at 715-305-6471.

First, contact the owner of the animals. If this is a repeated occurrence, keep a list of dates and times. We do live in a rural area and most of us do not fence our property. Animals will get out on occasion. This is one of the trade offs we choose when we do not fence our own property. However, the owners are responsible to control their animals. They are liable for damages and, should the animal be hit by a vehicle, they could be found negligent if the animals are repeatedly loose. McMillan is zoned and in residential zoning the presence of horses is in many cases prohibited or restricted to one or two animals as in the case of the Ag Estate Zoning (5-35 acres). You can contact the town hall for assistance in reviewing options. The town may be able to assist.

In residential areas fencing is at the discretion of the neighbors. If all parties agree that no fence is needed, this is okay. Should an adjacent landowner demand a fence, one must be provided under state law. The landowner is responsible for that half of the fence to his right when facing the fence from his land. The fence construction is as agreed upon by the landowners or, if they cannot agree, it reverts to the state statute. This dictates a 5 wire fence. This sometimes is an issue when a homeowner’s land is adjacent to an operational farm. Again it can be whatever all parties can agree upon.

We encourage our residents to take pride in their neighborhood. Some areas have even organized a cleanup day. Bags are available at the town hall. When they are full, place them at the side of the road and notify us. Our highway department will pick them up. For the larger items, like a refrigerator or tires, the town hall should be notified and they will be picked up. If you find bags of garbage dumped, notify the town. Often names and addresses are included and we do notify the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department. Individuals responsible for littering are cited!

Town right-of-way extends to the inside of the ditch line. Many residents choose to maintain the ditch as part of their lawn. This is acceptable as long as the ditch is not filled in and water flow obstructed. It is impossible not to push gravel off our roads during the winter. If you choose to maintain the town ditch as lawn, you may remove the gravel from the ditch so you can mow your lawn. It is illegal for a resident to plant shrubs or place stone, concrete or other materials in town ditches. This could result in drainage problems or cause damage to our equipment.

Gravel roads were originally constructed when speeds on side roads were under 45 MPH. Past generations were pleased to just get through to their homes. By nature the surface of these roads decomposes rapidly and dust and pot holes result. Increased traffic especially at high speeds accelerates this process. The roads can be graded, but that decreases the effectiveness of the chloride placed on the road for dust control. Smoother roads and dry material lead to increased speeds and a significant dust problem. Residents will need to choose. Dust and rapidly changing road conditions are unfortunately a reality of rural living. Over the years some township roads were blacktopped or were surfaced with crushed blacktop. We now have most residents living within one mile of a hard surfaced road. Some additional roads are projected for blacktopping. The availability of tax dollars for additional blacktopping may be limited in the future and this will of course determine when additional hard surfacing can be done.

Cost is a major factor. At as much as $150,000 a mile (2003) for road preparation and blacktopping, a major burden is placed on our tax payers. The current increase in oil prices has led to significant increases in blacktopping costs. (Petroleum is a major component n blacktop.) It could cost 8 to10 million dollars to blacktop all the roads in McMillan. We have had an aggressive blacktopping program in place since1990. Soil in many areas such as Wisconsin Rapids is sandy unlike our heavy clay soils. There, the frost has less impact on the road bed and thus the blacktop. Drainage is much less of an issue and less base (aggregate) is needed. Even in townships like Rock or Lincoln, to our south near Marshfield, much less road base preparation is required than here in McMillan with our clay soils. Thus, it is much more expensive for us to properly prepare and blacktop a mile of roadway.

If you discover a potentially dangerous situation on our roads, notify the town hall immediately. If it is after hours, please notify any town official. If you see someone consistently speeding or not stopping for a stop sign please call the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department (715-849-7785). Give them the time of day it is occurring and as much information as possible about the violator.

Yes. Residents were able to get the state law changed authorizing McMillan to withdraw from the Marathon County Library System and join the Marshfield Library. The same amount of taxes that would be withheld from McMillan property taxes and paid to Marathon County for library services is now instead sent to the Marshfield Public Library. In 2004, $65,433 was paid to the Marshfield library. This allows McMillan residents to use this amount of services at the Marshfield Library. While residents are encouraged to use the library, they should not check out more materials than are needed. If usage increases, additional McMillan tax dollars will be required to be paid to Marshfield. This service, while convenient and necessary, is not really free.

Contact the town clerk (715-389-1338). They will explain the reservation procedure and fee information. See also information under parks on this website. The remainder of the park is open to the public during daylight hours. (It cannot be reserved for private use.) Children playing in this area should be under adult supervision. Trash must be taken with you when you leave.

Yes. The McMillan Wildlife Area is made up of 2,224.8 acres covering parts of sections 7, 18, 19 and 30. This is a state, public hunting and recreation area. There are hiking and biking trails within the area sponsored and maintained by the Friends of the Mead and McMillan Wildlife Association. The trails can be accessed off Mann Road and Marsh Road. There are parking lots available at these locations. These trails are open from May 1 until September 1. Much of the marsh is a wildlife refuge and closed to hunting and other activities during parts of the year. Check postings in the parking areas. It is open to deer hunting in November. Anyone using the area must be responsible. Anything taken in must be carried out. Fires are not allowed. Be careful with smoking materials as this area always has a high fire potential! Snowmobile trails are allowed in designated areas during the winter. ATV’s are never allowed.

Whenever land is annexed to the city, the town loses tax base. The expense of running the town, including paying off of our debt, must then be shared by the remaining property owners. Everyone’s share becomes a little larger. We do not share in any tax base created by new development that is annexed to the city. We also do not receive any of the sales tax paid at the businesses that were built on the land annexed from the town. (Sales taxes go to the county and state.) Why do we allow annexation? Under current state law there is very little we can do to stop it. Currently we have a boundary agreement with the city of Marshfield that at least allows us some minimal input into the process so we can hopefully protect our landowners from totally incompatible development adjacent to their property.

Too often it is believed that the 1.6 million town residents living in the state of Wisconsin are somehow using urban facilities without paying their fair share. It has been alleged that towns in the state are “a refuge for fiscal parasites who drain the very life blood from the central city.” Some elected officials have even suggested that residents of towns should have their incomes taxed to help pay for city services. This information, taken from “Town Residents Are Not Parasites” in the October 2000 Wisconsin Towns’ Association publication Urban Towns’ Committee Mailbox, shows that town residents more than pay their way.

That’s right, town property owners pay nearly $100 more per capita in over all property taxes this year (2000) than their city cousins. How can this be? Towns are notably frugal with their own tax levies ($155 per town resident vs. $339 for cities.) but the town share of the K 12 levies was $310 per capita, versus only $186 for cities. The county tax apportionment is especially interesting in light of the frequent (but unproven) claims that towns absorb a disproportionate share of county recourses. Even if this is true, this data shows that for every $1 in county taxes levied on city residents each year, townspeople were billed $1.66.

Critics sometimes claim that town residents unfairly benefits from the city services by driving on city streets and enjoying such cultural amenities as parks, libraries and zoos with out paying any city taxes. ( McMillan residents contribute over $50,000 of their town taxes to the city of Marshfield library each year.) Even if all this is true, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they are getting a free ride because critics simply ignore the facts that in 1998 alone, $994 million poured into the city treasuries from state and federal aid programs. By contrast towns got only $214 million from these sources. That works out to $334 per city resident, verses $134 per town resident. Since all tax payers ultimately finance these aides, isn’t it fair to say that towns people are, in fact, indirectly paying for all those visits to the zoo?