| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Folks need to mark their calendars that the first auction of the season at Creston will be Saturday, September 3 at the Community Building.
Hoss and Tara (The Comely Redhead) Donley are the proud parents of an 8 lb 2 oz. baby boy Jacob Maloy Donley.
A flock of pink flamingos landed in Barbara Jane Fluharty's lawn on the occasion of the big 5 - 0. It is amazing that the "yard ornaments" knew where and when to land having come, no doubt, from some 'tropical paradise'.
Richard McFall has been visiting in the Creston area. He is planning on doing his part for energy independence by drilling a well in Summers County.
The price of crude oil was $61.25 over the weekend with significant fluctuation each day. It was learned that TOP Drilling, which has a long association with the Haught family, drilled some Oriskany wells near Smithville.
Eastern American is drilling another deep well, an offset to their first one, near Gandeeville in Roane County. Cabot, which formerly had a lampblack factory at Creston, has been picking up new leases near Grantsville while Dominion continues to obtain coal bed methane leases in Calhoun County.
It was learned that Consolidation Coal plans to open a big long wall mine situate primarily in Braxton County before much longer. It was understood that land in Clay County would also be mined. The name being used is Wolf Pen Knob Development Company.
However, with the higher oil prices the old problem returned with the inability to ship and sell the oil. "The drivers are all on vacation". "We have a truck broke down." "We are awfully busy now." Those are the words one hears and then "haul dry" tanks are fetched after a rain and "haul anytime" tanks are picked up midday when the sun is shining.
A well-placed source down at the Mouth of the Elk reported that Morgan Stanley, the brokerage house, purchased Triana (Columbia Natural Resources, LLC) for $400 million and now has the firm on the market for $3 billion. Suitors include Dominion and El Paso Natural Gas. The impact will be far reaching since marketing by those who have no direct connection will be impacted.
Farm use reports are due by August 31 and the nice folks who wrote up the rules allowed for no exceptions or extensions.
Mary Wolverton who suffered a stroke some time back is no longer able to read the newspaper so she has a family member read her The Creston News each week. That is something she looks forward to.
There continues to be a big stir over the decision by the powers that be to pay 25% more to state workers in the 3 eastern panhandle counties "as burger flippers at McDonalds make $11/hour". Of course state road fellows who pick up dead deer in the other 52 counties have been made to feel rather "inferior" to say the least.
A spokesman for those who work under the golden dome stated that the real problem in the elite counties was a shortage of teachers and social workers. One would think that with full employment there would be little to no need for welfare department (DHHR) workers. Perhaps their job is to provide food stamps for the illegal aliens who are there.
The Creston area received quite a bit of rain.
Rev. Paul Williams filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church. He and Janet Jett provided special singing.
Ronnie Waters, age 73, passed away after a protracted illness.
The status of the local natural gas utility is still unresolved. While an investment group, which will call themselves Mountaineer Gas, is poised to buy the natural gas operations of Allegheny Power (an electric company that has financial woes as a result of bad management) the deal hasn't come down.
In the meantime routine maintenance has taken a vacation which may end with the arrival of winter. One of the main concerns is the river crossing in Grantsville which can be easily fixed in dry times but which would be a challenge in zero weather coupled with high water. While the natural gas price index continues to go up the company still purchases natural gas for prices ranging from a low of 20 cents/MCF.
It was reported that oil and gas equipment, including sales meters, have been stolen recently.
When a certain well-known feller returned from his work he discovered a sign "Free to a good home" on his chariot. Now, if that wasn't enough there was a gent there from Tanner with a trailer getting ready to load up the "free" wheels. It was reported on good authority that our man was "very upset". No doubt details can be obtained from the Old Furniture Salesman, Wee Willy, Cuddles or others with the same connection.
Nancy Engelke and Susan Myers were shopping down at the Mouth of the Elk River.
Anna Engelke has been on a tour of Missouri. She went up in the arch at St. Louis which she said was neat and then went on a trip through the state. She visited Cape Girardeau, home of Rush Limbaugh, and Hannibal, home of Samuel Clements. She noted that Hermann, a Missouri River town, was a nice place that had a huge old wine cellar that was on the National Register of Historic Places. Sunday evening she was to dine on a steamboat on the mighty Mississippi. Mark Twain was scheduled to visit with the guests as they dined and viewed the river and the scenery. Anna noted that the cotton and rice looked good while some of the corn looked dry.
Rodney Lynch was attending to business at the Court House in Elizabeth. Some folks with local connections made the magistrate report down in Wood County.
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