Snakes on a plain: Mayor says Mingo serpents disrupted wedding
Mingo Creek County Park offers lovely leafy bowers and quaint covered bridges that have attracted many a bride and bridegroom, but the mayor officiating a recent wedding ceremony told the Washington County commissioners the setting also played host to a large number of uninvited reptilian guests.
Robert Kepics, mayor of Monongahela, brought his concerns to the commissioners at the public comment segment of last week’s board meeting.
“We have a major problem with snakes,” he said.
The serpents were sunbathing creekside near Shelter No. 3 at the Ebenezer Bridge the weekend before last, but they apparently didn’t stay on the warm rocks.
“They’re very aggressive, and they will bite,” Kepics said, describing one slitherer as chasing a child guest who walked toward the water. “They’re living in these big rocks where they put the new bridges in.”
Scott Fergus, director of administration for the county who often visits the creek with his water-loving dog, said he has never encountered snakes there but learned the species are queen snakes and northern water snakes. The Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission, which has jurisdiction over queen snakes and other reptiles and amphibians, states on its website there is “no open season” on queen snakes. For northern water snakes, the daily limit is one and possession limit is one. A Pennsylvania fishing license is required for those catching reptiles. The state is not a natural habitat for poisonous water vipers such as the cottonmouth.
Along with Mingo, the county operates parks at Cross Creek and Ten Mile Creek.
Lisa Cessna, executive director of Washington County Planning Commission, which oversees the Parks Department, said she had not received any complaints about snakes on the premises.
“Primarily, you will find them in the rip-rap around bridges,” she responded via email.
Kepics, an ambulance medic for 28 years, also said as a creek valley, Mingo has poor to non-existent cellphone service and asked the commissioners to consider installing call boxes so someone who needed to call emergency personnel would be able to reach an operator.
“You can’t just put in a tower,” Fergus said. “You’ve got to have a carrier who will hang something on a tower.”
Fergus said the county has asked Crown Communications to find a location in or near Mingo park.