| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The first auction of the season will be held Saturday, October 7, starting at 6 P. M. at the Creston community building. Folks can come and catch up on all the news from all the other folks that will be there. One can finally stock up on yummy cheese, pepperoni, etc. Bobby Ray is recovered from his surgery and "rarin' to go".
Mark Shimer, age 45, passed away after a round with cancer. Mark was an excellent carpenter and was one of those folks who would do anything for his friends & neighbors. Folks from far and near were at the funeral home in Elizabeth for visitation. Burial is to be Monday at the Cooper graveyard just off Stutler Road.
Several area residents attended services for Spencer farmer and cattleman Victor Kirby who passed away at age 97. His cousin Beelzebubba Brown was among the mourners. Folks who had known Vic during various parts of his life came to pay their last respects. Full military rites were part of the service.
Former Creston mayor and mail carrier Oris Meadows has been having some health problems but he has been hanging tough. His recent encounter with the chipmunk apparently did him no permanent harm.
Rev. Paul Williams filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church. Services were in natural lighting as there was a scheduled electric outage.
Several area residents attended the charge & Wirt and Calhoun Parishes conference held Sunday afternoon at the M. E. church in Elizabeth. The general consensus was that it was a very good meeting and food was served afterward.
There were lots of people on hand September 25 for the organizational meeting of the Creston area neighborhood watch. Officers were elected and folks were named to be in charge of the various roads leading to and from Creston. It was decided that likely the boundaries would be from Sanoma Road to Stutler Road on W. Va. 5, up Little Creek to Stutler Road, out Ground Hog (CR 9, a/k/a Ann's Run Road) to at least Rose Hill and up the Richardsonville Road to Goose Nest. The Wirt County Commissioners, Diane Ludwig, Anna Border, Andrew Cheuvront, Todd Corbitt, Todd Cole and Jeff Smith were among the special guests. The next meeting is October 16 at the Community Building.
Mr. Bee the local Potato Chip manufacturer decided to throw the health department grease police in the grease trap and went back to the original recipe after numerous complaints about the grease police approved P. C. potato chips. There is now talk in Gotham of "inspectors" making sure that eateries in that town only use grease police approved shortening. If half that effort was directed at fighting crime and dealing with terrorism, folks would no longer have to lock their doors, automobiles, etc.
The local potato chip fiasco puts one to mind about the fully hyped story about "miracle rice" some years back that was to stamp out hunger in the third world. There would be bountiful crops and all would have plenty to eat. Finally, after it was determined that even hungry people wouldn't eat the stuff that there was a real use for "miracle rice". The Japanese discovered that it was an excellent abrasive to clean industrial equipment, exhaust fans, etc. So much for the "do gooders."
Nancy & Jane Engelke, Wilbur Schenerlein, Sandy Fisher and Joberta White attended the wedding of Kristen Morrison and Cole Flowers in Huntington, Saturday. The couple celebrated with their guests after the ceremony to great dance music, wonderful food and fellowship.
The gendarmes were calling in Creston the other evening. It was understood that one individual went to the crossbar hotel while another was escorted back to the parents. It was also understood that a very, very under aged girl was involved.
Richard McFall was attending to business in the Creston and Wood County areas.
Garrell McKown who has a home up in Ohio but likes to spend time in and around Creston where he helps in all sorts of civic activities has been suffering from double vision. The main problem seems that he cannot get twice the amount of work done.
The FunChester group, Matt Enders, Keith Collins, Jess Potter, Anna Engelke & Paul Geibler went to a corn maze (elsewhere in the world corn is known as maize) and then a paint ball emporium. They also played games at the residence of Drew & Aggie Brast. The previous weekend Anna was visiting at Fort Bragg.
Someone is doing a timber job across from the former Jess Ashley residence.
The price of local Penn grade crude oil is $58.75/bbl. while propane is $1.057/gal, butane $1.226 and natural gasoline (mountain high test) $1.434/gal.
In case folks forgot there is an election on November 7. The last day to register to vote (or update one's information) will be October 17.
Mr. & Mrs. Bradley Stutler and Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mowrey were among those visiting Mr. & Mrs. R. W. Arthur.
A number of local residents plan to participate in Pioneer Day in Elizabeth on October 7. Then the annual FFA beef barbecue (a definite must do) will be held October 8 at the high school in Elizabeth after church on Sunday.
Keith Lynch's daughter "made contact" with one of the Wirt County DOH crew cabs. There was a lot of excitement for a while but no one was injured. Word spread over a wide area.
Rodney Gibson was attending to business in Creston on behalf of Penn Virginia Oil & Gas Corporation. Penn Virginia is interested in developing coal bed methane wells (CBM) in Calhoun County. One third of the nation's natural gas now comes from CBM wells. Wells are drilled into the coal veins and then laterals are drilled and sometimes fracted and then the methane (natural gas) flows to the well bore and then to the market meter.
Tim Lynch and Euell Russell attended the football game in Elizabeth Friday night.
The local area had more rain during the week.
Gary Michael Ferrell did real well catching snapping turtles in the Little Kanawha. His whoppers made for fine eating and lots of turtle soup.
Several area residents attended the BD Oil Gathering pig roast held
Friday at their terminal at Marietta. There was fine food and lots of oil
and gas talk. Junior Hildreth's son Jon noted that he had spent 41 straight
hours the previous week at frac jobs, well completions and drilling wells in
the area, especially Calhoun County.
The class action lawsuit against East Resources (the old Pennzoil
stuff) was settled for $2 million. It all started when a mineral owner
wanted East to pay him $25 improperly witheld from royallty checks for
severance tax. Something over 3,000 mineral owners will receive a refund of
the improperly withheld tax plus 10% interest as well as a check for $212
for the "bother of all the hassle". East will have to pay the $600,000 plus
in legal bills in addition to refunding all the tax with interest. Some new
oil and gas leases allow companies to take the tax out of the royalty.
Artex and Carter leases have that and other similar provisions.
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