 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Juanita Lockhart filled her regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church. She is scheduled for knee surgery in April.
There will be an auction Saturday, February 2 (Ground Hog Day), starting at 6 P. M. at the Creston Community Building although there likely won't be any ground hogs auctioned off. One Burning Springs resident noted that she was out of cheese, one of the main items in the auction.
Mr. & Mrs. Irvin Walker were out for a Sunday afternoon drive. Irvin noted that he had, among his teachers his grandfather, A. P. Walker, and C. M. Engelke.
One local resident found out the joys of Medicaid/Medicare as the government denied his prescription for Lescol XL. Socialized medicine is wonderful as viagra is approved so that older welfare men can continue to breed but routine medicines are denied. It is scary when powerful politicians on the national level want to make everyone's health care subject to federal bureaucrats and their underlings.
While no one filed for mayor in Creston, several filed for office in both Wirt & Calhoun Counties and on the state level for the various positions, including two who took on the Big Boss. Some of those contests should be very, very interesting. Local folks are making plans for Super Tuesday when a convention will be held in Charleston to choose l8 delegates to the Republican National Convention. On that note the New York Slimes (Times) endorsed McVain which says quite a lot as to who he really is.
Jane Engelke attended the Miss America pageant in Nevada where she met with vendors and some of her customers. While she was away W. H. Schenerlein IV visited at the Engelke residence in Creston as "Da Da" was involved in a wrestling tournament.
In an earlier column there was discussion about an automobile that, quite often, was covered up. Another family who lived miles away believed that the incident involved a car owned by one of their family members.
The local area continues to have winter weather with zero weather and a little snow. The mud finally froze allowing some local oil to be hauled, equipment moved, etc. Speaking of crude oil, Ergon upped the local price Saturday $1.25/bbl to $84.50.
Equitable announced that they were going to drill several horizontal wells in the shale in Mingo County while Loren Bagley and John Witt permitted Marcellus wells in both Pleasants & Wetzel Counties.
Junior Hildreth reported that two of his new Big Injun wells produce 300 MCF/day while another produces 250 MCF with 550 lb of rock pressure.
A bill was introduced in the legislature down at the Mouth of the Elk called the Surface Owners' Bill of Rights by Delegate Mike Burdiss. Richard McFall was calling on Larry Ferrell.
The ambulance and various law enforcement agencies were called Friday to Umstead Ridge for a situation.
Alvie Ferrell & Mr. & Mrs. Carl Ferrell were attending to business in Spencer.
A big load of logs went through Creston Sunday morning. The price of logs has been off for quite some time and while the reason is always given, "Well housing starts are down, lumber isn't used anymore, etc." there seems to be quite a bit more to the story. The Chinese government has become one of the major players in the quality log market.
Charles Russell was consulting with his optometrist in Parkersburg. He also dined at a pizza parlour across from Parkersburg High School.
Becky Starcher was consulting with her bone doctor. She is contemplating hip surgery.
The national news media keeps pounding the drum for hard times. One example they used was the fellow who had a six-figure salary who felt he, because of cash shorts, had to use public transportation to get back & forth to work. Of course the same media people want everyone to use mass transit rather than driving a car. A woman who had run up $40,000 of credit card debt (more than her annual salary) was upset because she couldn't afford designer clothes and (finally) realized that she couldn't afford to routinely eat out at expensive eateries. Likely she would take offense if someone told her to put some beans to soak & peel some potatoes. Closer to home Ingram Barge Co. is looking for deck hands. Creston has a long history of folks who work on the river. Chesapeake Energy announced that they were reworking some old rotary rigs and plan to hire crews to start them back to work.
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