City of Rice Lake Information and Contacts

The City of Rice Lake, (City), has a population of approximately 8,400, within Barron County of approximately 52,000 people. This page will cover what capacities the City has to support questions relevant to a prospective or current business owner. Other services such as recreation, library, etc. are described 

Community Development Department—

The City has a full time Community Development Department organized to be responsive to business needs for information such as City ordinances, zoning, City maps, building codes and other information. This department is comprised of the following full-time staff members:

 Bill Wagner  Building Inspector  (715) 234-2425  bwagner@ricelakegov.org
Owen Assessing, LLC provides real estate and personal property assessing as a consultant to the City of Rice Lake. Contact Jack Owens at (715 643-2081 or at owenassessingllc@centurytel.net for further information. 

Please feel free to contact these people directly, if you wish.  Here are links to the City’s online municipal ordinances and Community Development Department websites.  Zoning regulations are in Chapter 260 of the ordinances.

City officials have a high priority to maintain a competitive tax structure both in the area of real estate taxes as shown in the table below:

Comparable Cities Equalized Tax Rate
City

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

  
Antigo 9.5 9.9 10.2 9.5 9.5 9.7  
Ashland 7.6 8.5 8.4 8.9 8.8 9.3  
Portage 7.4 7.5 7.7 8.1 8.0 9.1  
Rhinelander 8.2 7.7 8.7 9.3 10.3 10.5  
Rice Lake 7.8 8.4 8.6 9.0 8.6 8.6  
Shawano 7.7 7.9 7.7 7.9 7.8 8.6  
Tomah 7.0 6.9 6.9 7.3 7.5 7.9  
Average, excluding CRL  
7.9
8.1
8.3
8.5
8.7
 8.2

* 2013 tax rates will be posted one available.