The Owen Common Council held their regular meeting on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Under Public Comment, Hailey Wyro talked about the condition of the playground equipment at Mill Pond Park. She said she has lived in the community for seven years. She feels the playground equipment needs upgrading. She also mentioned the condition of the grills. There is no equipment for the disabled. Wyro said she understood that funding for new equipment was a challenge. She also said the city’s website is out of date and the 2024 and 2025 budgets are not on the website. She asked where Parks & Rec money is being spent. She gave the council information about possible grants and said that she has also contacted the Owen-Withee Lions Club to see if they can help. Wyro said the playground and park is vital to the community.
Next up for discussion was the proposed chicken ordinance. Under the current ordinance chickens are not allowed. Alderperson Ken Martine said he had gotten a phone call about the per chicken registration fee that was proposed in the new ordinance. He pointed out that cats aren’t registered. He also asked what the registration fees would be spent on. Chief of Police Patrick Fehlman said that Medford charges a $15 registration fee and allows four chickens. DPW Chad Smith said the money would be used for the clerks to keep up the records. He said Abbotsford allows five chickens and Greenwood, Loyal and Withee allow none. The fine per offense for violating the current ordinance according to Chief Fehlman would be $175.30. Fehlman also got information from the state about registering chickens with them. There are at least four egg farms in the area that have strict rules they abide by. If something happened with a chicken in the city getting sick, it would shut those farms down. Chickens are required to be registered with DATCP due to potential for bird flu. There have been some complaints about chickens in town from neighbors. Alderperson Bob Wilczek said if they do a new ordinance, they should only allow four chickens. Those currently over that limit would be grandfathered in, but if a chicken dies, they wouldn’t be allowed to replace it until they are under the four chicken limit. Alderperson Pam Jaffke said there is no fee to register with the state and the registration is good for three years. She is okay with people having some chickens as long as guidelines are followed. Clerk Tracy Rau suggested rather than $10 per chicken, they could charge $20 for registering them and put that money into the parks. Martine said he had no problem with the proposed fine if the ordinance was violated. Smith said it was irritating that the Ordinance Committee tried to allow for something people wanted and then there were rude comments on Facebook about it. Alderperson John Mauel said his sister felt that four was okay. Hailey Wyro asked if this would apply to quail also. The answer was yes. Mayor Scott Jalling suggested sending it back to the Ordinance Committee for revisions and then to send it to the city attorney. The proposed ordinance was referred back to the committee.
The plans for the proposed fire hall were discussed. Alderperson Jason Thornton said the Fire District wants to know the price of the land. Planning talked about what the Fire District would like to do, but thought the council was responsible for setting a price. They also felt the Fire District should pay for the soil test. The estimate for putting in a road is about $230,000. It was suggested that they could not do a road, just a driveway for the fire hall. Thornton said the Fire District was hoping the city might help with the cost of the soil boring. He said they would like a potential agreement. It was noted that land in the Business Park sold for $1,500 per acre. Alderperson Ray Kilty suggested the Fire District make an offer.
Kilty said that Parks & Rec had talked about the alterations to the concession stand at Mill Pond Park. The Woodgrove Workers 4-H wants to add a window and a hood for fryers to the storage room area. The council approved the renovation, which will be done and paid for by the 4-H.
Kilty said that Parks & Rec is looking at some possible grants for playground equipment. He said if they upgrade, everything will have to be ADA. A starting package is $94,000 and he didn’t think it would fit in the current playground area. They talked about possibly putting up a donation box so the community could help. They do plan to pressure wash and clean the current equipment. DPW Smith talked to the Medford DPW. He said they came up with what they wanted and then fundraised for three years to raise enough money. Some of the work was donated. Alderperson Mauel said the Fair Board had put the equipment in Kerry Park 40 years ago. Alderperson Wilczek wanted it noted that the bathrooms and pavilion in Crowley Park and the dog park were paid for with donated money for those specific projects. He said he agreed that renovations are needed but council members are already chastised about taxes going up. Hailey Wyro said if they could clean the toddler area and get some inclusive equipment that would help. She is also willing to help Parks & Rec in any way she can. She asked about having a donation fund set up at the bank. The city just set one up to take in donations for the bike trail and thought it would be confusing to do another. Mayor Jalling said they could look into liquid rubber for the steps on the slide. Parks & Rec is planning a workday to pressure wash the playground equipment.
The Police Agreement was tabled until the next meeting when the city attorney will be present.
A special event permit was granted to the Woodland Hotel to block off parking stalls in front of their building for a music event.
Operator licenses were approved for Laken Potocnik and Nicole Hoyt.
A bid from American Asphalt to do work on 2nd Street from Ash Street to the city garage was approved. DPW Smith has a Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP) grant to help with the cost in the amount of $15,298. He got two bids. The bid from Jensen asked if the city could help remove the old blacktop. The bid from American was in the amount of $43,702.90 and they will mill the old blacktop and replace it with new. Smith also intends to replace curbs and culverts as needed. Plans are to do the work in September.
Smith said they are doing some crack sealing. There are places where roads are so bad, it isn’t worth crack sealing them. There was a 480-foot section of Willow Road done in 2006. Trees overhang that area causing issues with frost not coming out of the ground fast enough. He would like to remove all the trees in the right-of-way so the road gets more light. He said there are other roads just as bad or worse than Willow. Alderperson Martine asked if there was sewer under some of the other roads. The response was yes. Smith said they will have to start budgeting to chip seal to try to save the roads. Some fire hydrants in the city are also old. Wilczek asked if they could cut and patch Willow. Smith said yes.
Under the Public Works Report, DPW Smith said they need to find and fix a water leak in the hydrant on Badger. They replaced a curb stop on 3rd Street that was leaking. Meter reads are done, letters were sent to residents that needed them on lead and copper. They have gotten their first 3M PFAS settlement check in the amount of $8,776.68. This will help pay for the new pumps that are needed. There is more coming in September. The city is to get a total of $58,000. For sewer, Smith has been working with Staab Construction on the standpipe. They are trying to figure out how to bypass the system while repairs are done. It will take $58,000 to do the top of the standpipe. He also continues to work with August Winters on standpipe issues. Heavy rains in mid-June pushed the sewer plant to the max. They had to divert to the EQ basin. It will take $240,000 to replace the master SCADA system, which is old. They have done some repairs to the antenna and coax cable, which is helping with some of the issues they were having. They installed new temp sensors at Owen 1 Lift Station. Under Streets, he said new employee Carter Sapinski is doing well. One of the trees at city hall will have to be removed when Xcel replaces their lines. They will donate a new tree to be planted somewhere in the city. They fixed potholes. The depot roof is done. They have been painting curbs and crack sealing. Under Parks, public works removed the stumps in Crowley Park. They removed a wood post by the dog park. The grills at Mill Pond Park are being re-done with help from Dennis Looker, the O-W Lions, and Midway Steel. They did some repairs to the baby swings at Mill Pond Park. They also weed sprayed the camper pads and cleaned the fire rings in Crowley Park.
Under the Mayor’s Report, Jalling asked about the website being updated. Deputy Clerk Kelly Booth has been working on it.
It was also noted that some campers from out of state were impressed with the campground and felt that Owen was a nice, quiet, clean town.