A week or so ago, we received a telephone call from a former resident now living across the river in York County. The caller wondered why riverfront property in Lancaster County was valued at a lower price than in York County.

The caller cited the prices of properties along the same river in the Long Level area and contrasted them with the impending price of riverfront properties in Columbia.

• The caller wondered how citizens feel about the municipality’s offering waterfront property at bargain prices to a selected group of buyers when, historically, waterfront property commands higher prices.
• The caller wondered why the municipality got only one real estate appraisal instead of several and why the appraiser used was the same one who provided the appraisal of the property at Third and Linden Streets.
• The caller wondered how residents will feel when these protected buyers decide to resell these properties in the future at “real-market” values and turn tidy windfall profits. [NOTE: We checked the land value and the sales prices for the properties on the other side of the river. The “land value” of the waterfront properties ranges between $76,000 and $84,000 for most of the properties. The norm selling price of the properties a few years ago was $85,000. That’s substantially higher than the stated and anticipated selling prices for river property on this side of the river.]
• The caller wondered why Columbia’s elected “public servants” chose to take the path of offering the properties at “less than market value” prices to a select group of buyers rather than offering the properties to all buyers at a realistic market price. Or why the Borough officials did not consider the riverfront property as an expansion of existing plans for public recreational areas.

Now we’re wondering too! How about you; are you wondering?