By Alvin Engelke
 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There will be no auction at the Creston Community Building on Saturday, November 3. Bobby Ray Starcher, the auctioneer, just got out of the hospital with heart problems. He intends, though, to hold the November auction.
The big news in Creston, as elsewhere in the area, was that Creston received some gentle rain that soaked in the ground doing good. Grass has turned greener already and some amphibians were out celebrating the moisture, slime moulds formed fruiting bodies and mushrooms are coming up. There is now mud around Creston for the first time since whenever.
The leaves have been turning and flowers are still blooming as Mr. Frost has yet to make a professional call, which, of course, is a good thing.
It was the general consensus that this year's Creston Halloween party was the best ever with all sorts of critters of all ages converging on the Community Building and environs. There were beautiful damsels, animals, witches and such, several pirates, some with blood from where they had killed for plunder including one who had his wench in tow. There was one who didn't have his head on straight and several women (& girls) of ill repute. To put it mildly, the judges, who included a local barrister and a couple of county commissioners, had their hands full. Donna Sue's biggest baby was upset that they ran out of candy bags before they got to him but it should be noted that "baby" is now a grown man with a family of his own.
There were all sorts of goodies, vegetable soup, chili, desserts, cookies, drinks and the hay ride was a great success with some of the younger set insisting to go for the second round as ghosts and apparitions didn't even come close to curdling their blood & they wanted to experience the fun for a second time.
The community would like to thank all who donated, worked, cooked, helped with those who came back from the "other side", handed out tickets, etc. Brittany Donley (the comely redhead's daughter) won the candy corn guess while Amy N. Ferrell won the guess cake.
There was quite a bit of excitement on the Richardsonville road and in Creston generally when Erin Ray's chariot caught fire around 4 A. M. the other morning. It seems her boyfriend, T. J., had to work over and she got worried about him and went to look for him. The vehicle caught fire across from the McGill #1 down from what was known as Frank Kesselring's cabin. She walked to Becky Starcher's to call for help and when the scanner got wild with Creston directions folks were brought out of their slumber to try to determine what was going on and where. When a telephone call to a Richardsonville resident wasn't answered (no one knew the phone line was out of order) folks came to check to see if the residents were OK. They were and had slept through all the flashing lights that had gone up past their house.
The Calhoun road crew came later and pulled ditch on the Richardsonville road and found a gas line. Connie noted that Carl Ray ought to do such in the spring, not the fall.
Keith Belt brought the message at the Burning Springs M. E. Church.
A number of area residents visited with Elizabeth deViese, who is Shelly Moore Capito's representative, at Elizabeth. The report about the cab, sent out by the Parkersburg office, to deliver mail at Creston brought a chuckle to some. Some one said, "Just how dumb is that Michael Bailey and does he think he is saving taxpayers money?"
W. Harrison Schenerlein IV spent the weekend visiting his grandparents in Creston. He took in the Halloween party as a monkey and attended the Burning Springs M. E. church.
Eva G. Pennington received a good report from her physician. Instead of having cancer she had scar tissue.
Cap'n Spock, Cooter Marks, Holly, Steve & Teddy Parsons, Jeremy, Carl & Donna Sue Ferrell, R. L. Phillips, M. C. Pursley & Alvin Engelke were among those who attended a belly buster at the Dils Center in Parkersburg to learn about not digging into buried gas lines and other utilities.
Rondle McCumbers announced that his company, Top Dog Well Search, is the leader in finding lost and abandoned oil and gas wells, especially as those that are critical to find for long wall coal mining which likely will be coming to Wood County before too long. He is located near Stumptown, phone 354-9660.
The price of crude oil rose above $92/bbl on the world scene and the local price rose to $85.50. Some local natural gas sold for $5.21/dekatherm reflecting warmer temperatures, a short-term glut of gas and the likelihood of new western pipelines that will bring cheaper gas to eastern markets. Most of the local pipeline system is old and as a result of a flurry of new drilling in the area local storage is full and gas lines are pressured above what they have been historically.
Abarta has joined the Roane County drilling frenzy as Equitable continues to permit more horizontal wells on the Bruen land (the Grange patent). Wells are being permitted in Pendleton, Hardy & Grant Counties which are not historically known as part of the petroleum rich part of the state. Also there has been a lot of leasing activity in Greenbrier County reflecting the thought that the Marcellus shale would be thicker there.
One local resident noted that it was just not clever to jump from moving vehicles.
Judy Shremshock and Jerry Hopkins were attending to business in Creston trying to work on the 911 addressing.
Some Creston residents are on the Calhoun electric circuit while others are on the circuit coming from Parkersburg. Seems there was a failure at a substation somewhere which had a cascading effect putting most of Wirt County, the Reedy area and sections of Wood County out of power. Some motored to Elizabeth to go to the court house and the bank only to find everything closed up with the school buses heading back to their starting points. It was said power came back on at 1P. M. or after 8 hours of no service.
Gary Ferrell was attending to business in Creston.
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