Aug 15, 2016 3 min read

For those looking out for their political futures, a property reassessment is about as attractive as a snake pit because it has the potential to anger so many voters.

But Monday may have been the first time in the history of Pennsylvania that a property owner brought a venomous snake as Exhibit A in his assessment appeal.

Keep in mind that when Wayne Elliott, 76, of Amwell Township, opened the red toolbox to show its contents to the three members of an assessment appeals board, the copperhead inside was not poised to strike.

Elliott, who declined to be photographed, said he smashed the serpent’s head this past spring but dried the viper to preserve both it and his appeal rights.

“The snake made no comment,” said Tom Diehl, a member of the panel hearing Elliott’s case.

Appellants in the waiting room or in the suite of offices likely weren’t aware Elliott was harboring the remains of a fanged reptile in the toolbox he brought to the county seat.

“He was so nice,” said Washington County Recorder of Deeds Debbie Bardella of Elliott. The elected official was acting as receptionist while clerks worked on the scheduling of between 5,000 and 6,000 hearings.

“I’m hoping to keep my taxes down a little bit,” said the resident of a three-room home with a central fireplace, built in the 1800s on approximately 4 ½ acres. “I can’t sell this home. It’s in the flood plain. You can hear water running under the floor. It’s built on a rock. How can you sell a house with no foundation under it?”

His wife, Rose, shies away from the basement of their home because of the potential presence of snakes, not all of them venomous.

Copperheads populate semi-aquatic habitats, and Elliott said the serpent he brought to his appeal hearing was slithering across Banetown Road toward his property, which overlooks a tributary of Ten Mile Creek. When he mows his acreage, he can sometimes discern a scent like cucumber. The National Zoo herpetology fact sheet says copperheads sometimes, when touched, emit a cucumber-like musk.

His land and structures were first assessed at about $200,000, but the value has been reduced to $87,400. On the market, “I couldn’t even get $12,000 out of this place the way it sets,” Elliott said Monday near his front porch, where the only thing coiling was a morning glory vine abloom with magenta flowers.

Because of the volume of property assessment appeals, a homeowner can expect to learn by mail of the board’s decision in about seven to 10 days, so it was unknown Monday if the copperhead had a good effect on Elliott’s case.

Washington County hasn’t reassessed property for the past 35 years, and if 5,000 owners hope to have the value of their homes reduced, that translates to a little more than 4 percent of the county’s 120,000 parcels.

Appeal hearings began last Wednesday, and five three-person boards have been scheduled to hear about 100 appeals each business day. About 25 percent of those who filed are no-shows.

If an appellant does not show up, the board decides against the property owner, who still has the opportunity to take his or case to court.

If a home or business owner can’t make it to Washington, he or she has one chance to try again with a date before Oct. 31.

“No lie,” Bardella said. “We had a woman call who said, ‘I’m in labor right now.’ So of course we’re going to reschedule.”