 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Local residents have been feasting on ramps. Bloodroot, spring beauties and other spring ephemerals are blooming, grass is growing and spring seems to be well on its way. Julia Joyce's daffodils have been beautiful for quite some time now.
Tammy McFarland has been on the sick list and Donna Sue Ferrell could not talk one day last week. Several marked their calendars on this singular event.
Eva G. Pennington is home after undergoing cancer surgery.
Roy Copen and Rob Kimes were among those who attended the Creston Community business meeting. The main topic was the ATV Poker Run which is scheduled for April 19.
Also on April 19 for those who aren't into having fun riding four wheelers there will be a Genealogy Fair from 9 A. M. until 3 P. M. at the multipurpose room of the Elizabeth Baptist Church.
Sunshine, otherwise known as Joan Satterfield, is doing as well as can be expected after undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Even though she has been going through a rough time she still has her sunny outlook. Sister Twila had been staying with her.
There was a good deal of excitement after an oil spill at the old Eureka facility at Brooksville. On Saturday they were tossing Peat Sorb, an oil spill clean up material from the Annamoriah bridge.
It was learned that Ted Menefee had a heart attack back around Christmas time.
Electile dysfunction continues to plague Creston residents and it was learned that a recent sermon at a Brooksville church also addressed the issue.
James Hal Cone in his book A Black Theology of Liberation which is the basis for churches like the one where B. Hussein Obama goes has the following quote, "Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy." That would seem to be self-explanatory.
Sen. McVain recently announced that he would look to Europe for national defense and he suggested closing Club Gitmo (the Guantanamo facility for captured terrorists) and suggested going along with Al Gore's global warming hoax. Big government types seem to think that anything can be solved by government action but likely changing the weather is unlikely, to say the least. The result will be higher taxes and restrictions on the activities allowed by the peasants who cannot purchase "carbon credits" to live like the Gores and Clintons do.
Her Thighness, Madame Hillary got caught in another whopper, this one being a story about a hospital in Ohio refusing care for a pregnant woman. She and Slick are now among the 14,500 richest families in America. Meantimes her Chinese friends continue to slaughter the residents of Tibet who would not bow down and worship communism.
It was reported that there is some "ocean front property" for sale on Main Street in Grantsville. It was understood that the facility seats 20 or so.
A big crowd was on hand for the Creston auction. There were three county commissioners, Bob Weaver, Roy Copen and Robert Lowe, Sheriff candidates Keith Wilson and Mike Whited & Assessor Debbie Hennen.
Milton Otteman, who operates as Spartan Exploration, is looking for leases in Roane County.
Dominion (Mother Hope) held a meeting at Bridgeport to announce the Appalachian Gateway project. Hope spokesmen noted that $1 billion was going to be spent drilling new wells in the state with even more in Pennsylvania. To deal with this Dominion is planning to spend up to $588 million on new pipelines and new stripping plants like Hastings station which last year operated beyond its design capacity. Locally it was anticipated that 7 million cubic feet/day in additional production would be coming from the Yellow Creek area slightly less of an increase through the Jones and Orma stations. However a 100-million/day increase was said to be anticipated from the area generally along the border of Roane and Jackson Counties.
Under Hope's new plan gas producers will have to agree to Firm Transport contracts to avoid being shut in. These contracts will have extra transportation fees which will be used for the facilities upgrades.
Chesapeake acknowledged that royalties are higher in Pennsylvania (up to 3/8) and signing bonuses are $3,000/acre but they allowed as how there was no real reason to treat West Virginia mineral owners like white folks.
The price of Pennsylvania grade crude rose $2.50/bbl on Saturday to $100/bbl for local crude.
Those who have been pounding the "hard times drum" are now saying that a high percentage are living on food stamps. It is obvious that only a very few anywhere now bother to raise gardens, keep chickens, pigs or a milk cow and, of course, those with an "entitlement mentality" have no intention of engaging in work. Not so long back some local residents were attending a meeting in Columbus and had occasion to go to the local Wally World which was in a very upscale neighborhood. Ahead in the line was a well-dressed dark complected couple and she had a cart full of junk food, along with 6 apples & a dozen oranges.
The bill came to $186 or so and she whipped out her food stamp card which didn't over $7 of her purchases. She turned to the well-dressed dude who was with her and he turned so the clerk could not see and he fetched out his moneybag which was chained to his body. He opened it and, it was clear that he had thousands in it. He finally found a $20 to use to pay for balance of the bill. It should be clear that there was no poverty in that household, to say the least regardless of taxpayer subsidy.
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