| By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There were 320 riders at the Shrine Club poker run Saturday over on the dePue farm. Jack Nutter took home "the big bucks" from the 50/50. One of the workers said, "We try to keep the money in Creston." Last time Casper Shuman was one of the winners.
The Creston Community Building ATV Poker Run will be held on September 15. It too should be a great run.
Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church. He noted that the Belt reunion was scheduled for later in the day.
Both Eva G. Pennington and Nancy Hall had good reports from their physicians.
Folks from far and near motored up the old church at Ground Hog for the annual reunion there. One woman said, "I got up at 5 o'clock this morning to cook." Some while back the faithful gathered again at the Cedar Grove church on the Richardsonville road.
Tobacco is doing well and some fine hay has been put up recently. With additional rains, at least locally, grass is green and growing although elsewhere pastures look brown & stressed.
A topic of discussion most places is the sale of state road equipment September 15 at Buckhannon. No one seems to be buying the Big Boss's spin on why such is a wonderful thing.
According to press releases, work is continuing on the Annamoriah bridge.
The Congress critters, who are presently on vacation, are considering "The Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007". It will put all water in the nation under EPA and Army Corps jurisdiction. This would include wells, farm ponds, goldfish ponds in the front lawn as well as gutters & downspouts. Under the proposed new law a "streamlined permit" will require 313 days and a cost of $29,000 while individual permits take 788 days and cost $271,000. One might want to consult one's U. S. Senator and Congresswoman before it is too late.
Speaking of Senators, Rockefeller received money from the Chinaman who gave Madame Hillary and others the big bucks. It might seem that his money actually came from Peking and the Peoples Liberation Army.
Anna Engelke and W. Harrison Schenerlein IV were visiting in Creston Friday evening. Also Anna & Nancy visited at the Wilbur Schenerlein residence in Vienna.
Michael Bailey from the Clarksburg post office is scheduled to be in Creston to look for a new (or different) facility for the Creston post office. Local residents are very concerned that the office would be closed.
Charles Russell was calling on Mr. & Mrs. Don Rhodes and daughter Sue Ann.
Both the Calhoun and Wirt road crews have been in the area mowing the grass along the roadways.
Dominion E & P, part of what was known as Hope Gas, has filed permits for coalbed methane wells on the Hunter Bennett tract on Bear Fork. It is noted that the wells will be multilateral; that is to say several horizontal holes will be drilled through the coal. Elsewhere in the state horizontal wells are being drilled in oil and gas formations. One Texas outfit wanted to joint venture some Marcellus shale horizontal wells with a local firm.
The price of local Penn grade crude rose to $68.75/bbl while the price of natural gas fell to below $5.50/MCF.
Louis Martin who works for Eastern American Energy Corp. was riding the company ATV out the Umstead to check on meters and ahead of him was Charlie Stout's skidder which was returning from pulling a heavily loaded truck up a steep bank. When another log truck was spotted coming out the ridge the driver threw the skidder into reverse without looking. Louis tried to escape but couldn't. He jumped off the four wheeler to avoid being killed. The skidder continued in reverse inflicting damage on the ATV until Martin finally got the attention of the operator who definitely was not a local resident. At that point the skidder man high tailed it to the Heartwood Fund land.
The authorities were consulting with Heartwood Fund's timber contractors. It seems they didn't know that it is illegal to run bulldozers on state highways, etc. Yeah, sure.
There are now metasequoia trees growing on the Umstead. They are known from the fossil record.
The closure of Benson Truck manufacturing in Mineral Wells and the Holiday Inn in Parkersburg are two obvious examples of West Virginia's being "Open for Business".
A dead tree almost knocked a hole in the roof of the new building the Loudins constructed on the Pell place but another tree caught it, at least for now.
Tommy Gay Wright was spending some time at his place on the old W. T. Petty farm.
Helen Burns whose daughter now runs the restaurant in Elizabeth remains in intensive care as a result of an automobile accident. She was filling in while her daughter, Lisa, was in the hospital.
It was learned that "Peck" Jones and Freddie Bush have formed a timbering partnership and are working on Bean Ridge in Ritchie County.
Someone has been bringing some fine logs through Creston early of a morning.
Euell Russell attended the football game in Elizabeth. | 
