| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The Annual Creston Community Building open house will be held the afternoon of Sunday, August 14. Everyone is invited to stop by, have some goodies. look at the building, old and new pictures, visit with relatives, friends and people you never heard of before.
There was a bad wreck near the former Okey J. Campbell residence. The vehicle finally hit a tree on the riverbank so the driver didn't drown. He was taken to the hospital by helicopter and his condition is not known locally.
Rev. Paul Williams filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church.
Nancy Hall is home after visiting family in Nevada. She is to consult with her physician.
Several area residents took in the Wirt County Fair which had to have been a great success. The queen was Sarah Offutt whose great-grandparents Howard & Jane Schrader Cooper lived on Little Creek. The Little Miss was Lakyn Summers who lives in Creston on the family farm which has been in the family for over 160 years. She is the great granddaughter of Peter T. Lashley dePue, Jr. and June dePue. Sierra Dooley won a blue ribbon with her chickens while Emma Miller won showmanship and reserve champion with her heifer. She and her sister Lindsey won several ribbons with their exhibits. There were also a number of winners in the pretty baby contests with local connections.
The livestock sale brought in a big crowd with a number of new buyers and Saturday night the mud bog had an unbelievable crowd. Some of the chariots made it through while others did not. Charles Russell said he had a great time and that the chicken barbeque was great and Euell reported that the extension homemaker's beans were fine too. As Euell says, "I like beans."
Anna Engelke was visiting in Creston over the weekend. She and her mother went shopping and attended the Parkersburg Homecoming Pageant. Wilbur & Fritzina returned with her Virginia.
Ted Grim, Gloria Norman, Betty & Fred Bish, Jack & Helen Nutter, as well as some others have been working on painting the Creston Community Building.
The Louden family has been camping on the old Hunter F. Pell place.
Kathy Collins reported that Keith Collins landed in Berlin at the airport that was used to keep the Berliners from starving during the communist Russian Berlin blockade back when the Cold War was new.
The price of local paraffin based crude oil rose over the weekend to $58.75/bbl while some Roane County natural gas recently fetched over $12/MCF (thousand cubic feet).
A class action lawsuit has been brought against East Resources [which has many of the old Pennzoil leases] for improperly taking severance taxes out of what were supposed to be gross royalty payments. It has been reported that other suits are pending against others of the "big boys" who have been "less than straight forward".
While some areas have received scattered showers, the Creston area is dry.
Amy Ferrell has accepted employment at the Mineral Wells Wendy's restaurant.
North Fork Logging has been bringing out full-length logs which they take down W.Va. 5.
The crop-harvesting helicopter has been in the local area looking for "alternative" crops to harvest. It was reported that hit the big operators out at Pine Twist & out on Courtney Ridge.
John Little, Robert Lee Phillips and Brian Vaughn were among those calling at the Charles Russell residence recently as was Jody Goff, the nurse from Helping Hands the agency that provides care for them.
Dorothy Lynch was out watering her flowers and hoping for rain.
The folks down at the Mouth of the Elk River have announced that highway work crews must be seen out "on the main roads". The point of reference was I-79, a four lane freeway. Calhoun and Wirt Counties have, thus, no "main roads" so the slogan "Help is on the way" would mean locally that more money will be given to 'needy' counties like Marion, Berkley, Logan, etc. while local roads will be allowed to go back to trails and paths. Work schedules must be submitted 3 weeks in advance and be constantly revised to reflect weather, equipment breakdowns, special directives from important people, etc.
The Hopkins family reunion will be Sunday August 14 from noon to 4:30 at the Vienna Community Building. For details call Tom Hopkins at 422-3505.
The Japanese stilt grass, one of the more worrisome exotic invasive pests is now three feet tall. The plant secretes toxins which kill and/or inhibit native plants and each plant will make 1000 seeds or so.
Jerry Riggs and the crew are fixing a washout on the Richardsonville road near the Mowrey residence.
Nellie Engelke, who passed away in 1981, has now been pre-approved for at least two credit cards. It seems that someone in the property tax division of the W. Va. State Tax Department sold names of property owners to various credit card companies.
The Wirt County Farm Bureau will meet Tuesday August 16 at the road garage in Elizabeth.
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