| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There were 29 for Sunday school at the Burning Springs M. E. church. The Marks family & Sierra Starcher provided music and Rev. Carlos Nutter brought the message & served Holy Communion.
The Creston auction will be Saturday, February 4 starting at 6 P. M. at the Creston Community Building. There will be all kinds of good things and, in addition, it is a good chance to see folks and hear some whoppers. Of course someone also will win the 50/50.
The business meeting of the Creston Community Building will be held Tuesday, February 7 at 7 P. M. at the Community Building. It is the time that annual dues need to be paid. A new stove recently was installed in the building.
Virginia Stiltner, who lives in the old Ferdinand Burdette place on the ridge at the head of Beaver Dam, hit a patch of ice caused by a broken water line near the Slate bridge. She sustained serious injuries in the accident.
Saturday morning folks in Creston didn't know why the electric had been off but later they learned that a car wreck at Brooksville clipped three poles and killed 26-year-old Heather Richards Meyers. The driver of the vehicle, Justin Boatright was life flighted to CAMC.
With the unseasonably warm weather the tomcats have been going wild and some ants were even out on one local kitchen counter sampling some food left on a cookie sheet. Easter flowers are starting to come up and flies, wasps and the USDA's Asiatic beetles have been active. Upwards of 75 turkeys gathered on Ann's Run Saturday morning. The gobblers were busy trying to impress the hens as they strutted their stuff.
Alvin Engelke attended Bernard Wyatt's wedding in Spencer, Saturday. Young at heart Bernard, who had been a widower for many years, met up with a woman that he had courted back in 1946. His new bride, Patti, is the daughter of Jimmy Roberts, who as many may recall, ran a store at the top of the hill as one went north from Grantsville. Her brother Denver formerly operated the Marshall (Crowley) wells on Annamoriah.
Don Hursell reported that he survived the big layoffs at Ford Motor Company but he indicated that he is going back to school to obtain a degree and thus be employable when/if FoMoCo folds because of bad decisions made years ago, etc. Meanwhile there seem to be help wanted signs out all sorts of places with several obvious in Spencer.
Bill McFee noted that when he was watching the RFD channel on the Tee Vee the National Farm Bureau convention was on and a picture was shown of the West Virginia delegation. Right up in the front were Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Blair who formerly farmed in Wirt County but now farm down at Belleville.
The folks down at the Mouth of the Elk are very busy "doing public service". To explain that one can read a famous piece penned by the late Will Rogers. One of schemes is to raise the ante to $50,000 for farm use so that developers can pry folks loose from their land on the cheap. Also the DNR stated that coyotes do not eat deer and wild turkey. Of course the DNR lost all credibility years and years ago. Obviously they want to keep matters that way. Their spokespersons forgot that the story some years back was that an automobile insurance company brought in the coyotes to eat the deer. Others believe the DNR actually fetched in some to consume some fawns and to help out the mountain lions that were imported to the area.
It was indicated that the elite folks down there also plan to help take care of the gambling interests. Also there are lots of mad people over the big increase in tolls on I-77 (a/k/a W. Va. Turnpike) and it would appear that their numbers might just not stand up to close scrutiny.
Bob Graham the Senior Citizen director who was caught pulling down $400,000/year as salary, along with benefits, was the recipient of a number of recent federal indictments. One might wonder how his income from Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie and Wood Counties is reported. He is supposed to be the director of Wyoming County which is situate down below Beckley but he is listed as caregiver for some Creston residents.
Cabot Corp had been leasing land in Mason County and paying $5/acre delay rental. A competitor came in and started paying $20 so Cabot raised it to $25/acre. Many new leases do not provide for free gas and allow the dumping of toxic waste materials so one should carefully read the "fine print". Columbia, now Chesapeake, has still been paying $3/acre while only paying royalties at about 50% of the market price.
The price of local crude rose $1.50/bbl to $63.75. Ergon which is one of the local crude buyers has been advertising for owner operators to haul tanker loads of "liquids". It would seem that the price offered is very competitive. Ergon operates a refinery at Congo in Hancock County and a terminal above Marietta on the Ohio side.
Sterling Drilling, now called Prime Operating, sold some natural gas for $22.70/MCF over in Roane County. Speaking of natural gas it is reported that "a new company from the west" is coming to the area with their eye on deep and very deep gas. Another outfit is going to spend 3 years drilling old wells in Jackson County down to 10,000 feet. They are presently drilling in Logan County.
A huge load of logs went up Ann's Run very early the other morning. It was felt that they were dodging the various law enforcement agencies.
A positive ID has been made on the aluminum thief. He may get to spend some quality time with Spike & Bubba.
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