CLARKS SUMMIT — Lackawanna County will rent space in the Marketplace at Steamtown to hear thousands of assessment appeals anticipated before reassessed property values countywide take effect next year.
The Marketplace at Steamtown will provide a convenient and centralized Scranton location for the appeals, which the county’s permanent and auxiliary appeals boards will hear in August, September and October, officials said. The three-month appeals window gives property owners an opportunity to challenge their new assessments calculated as part of Lackawanna County’s first property reassessment since 1968.
The Lackawanna County Government Center in Scranton on Friday, March 28, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Meeting Wednesday in Clarks Summit, Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak approved a commercial lease agreement with Steamtown 300 LLC for first-floor space at the Marketplace, which is located on Lackawanna Avenue and owned by businessman and developer John Basalyga. The county will pay $3,700 per month in rent and utilities during the three-month lease, per the agreement.
Wednesday’s vote came after the commissioners voted last month to appoint 12 members and two alternates to several new auxiliary boards that will hear and rule on assessment appeals. The formal appeals process follows an informal review period where thousands of home and property owners questioned tentative assessments they received earlier this year during a prior step in the long-overdue reassessment process that began in 2022.
New final assessments reflecting potential adjustments made following informal reviews will be mailed by June 20. Those assessed values should reflect the fair market value of a property, as reassessment is designed to bring assessed values used to calculate property tax bills into line with what the property is worth on the real estate market. Property owners still unsatisfied with their new assessments must file formal appeals by an Aug. 1 deadline.
County assessment Director Patrick Tobin said in May that he anticipates at most 10,000 appeals during that three-month window, with the appeals boards conducting hearings five days a week over that period.
The four recently established auxiliary boards complement the county’s permanent assessment appeals board composed of members Shirley Barrett of Archbald, Martin Duffy of Scranton and William Nicolais of Jefferson Twp. Recent appointees to the auxiliary boards include two former county assessment directors, two former FBI agents and other professionals, all of whom must be state-certified property evaluators before hearing appeals.
Gaughan and Chermak appointed Robert Weber of Scranton as an auxiliary board alternate at Wednesday’s meeting.
Commissioners will next meet June 18, back in the county government center in downtown Scranton.