 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There will be no services at the Burning Springs M. E. Church on Sunday, October 12. Rev. Carlos Nutter brought the message on October 5 and served Holy Communion.
Several local residents participated in and attended Pioneer Day in Elizabeth. It was beautiful weather and a success was reported by all who attended.
There was a huge crowd on hand for the last Shrine ATV Poker run of the season at the dePue farm at Creston.
There was a good crowd on hand for the Creston auction.
Euell Russell was attending to business in Grantsville.
Jake Boggs, the Stinson Stud, was in Creston cutting hay. Wives, daughters, & girlfriends had to be kept inside for safekeeping while he was in the area.
P. E. Graham installed a new storm door for Charles & Euell Russell. Euell, Mr. & Mrs. I. J. Lynch Sr. and Mr. & Mrs. I. J. Lynch Jr. & families attended the homecoming at the Elizabeth Baptist Church.
Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Weaver was attending to business in Creston Saturday evening.
Numerous Creston residents, along with folks from all over feasted at the annual FFA Beef Barbecue held Sunday in Elizabeth.
The gendarmes were out Sunday on Route 5 looking for speeders.
While the political class continues to talk about a "bad economy" it should be noted that the help wanted signs haven't gone down. Just this past week a local man was called to find welders for a pipeline job in Pennsylvania. The pay was $120.00/hour with motel room paid and $100.00/day for expenses. One man said, "I can't go; I'm breaking a horse and I can sell him for $800.00. I just can't take the job. Another man said, "I'm on disability; this would mess up my check." The man searching for workmen said, "Well, we'll pay you cash under the table. We'll just keep your application on file in case you get hurt so we'll be covered." The local gent then said, "Well, I don't think so. I've got my deer feeders out & I'm looking forward to hunting season." At last report no one locally could be found to go work on the pipeline project.
The Loudin family spent the weekend at their cabin on the former Hunter F. Pell place.
Anna Engelke and Adam Wade attended the Andrew Byrd concert in Bethlehem Pennsylvania and attended the Harvest Festival there and the Garlic Festival in Easton.
Local residents were upset over the big bailout by Congress of the mess caused by the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which were government created "companies" that were exempt from regulation. Over the past several years the president and many in Congress tried to bring matters under control and auditors found vast fraud and "cooked books". However, political contributions to several key senators and congresscritters kept the regulators off their backs. Now with the bailout it likely will be that the criminal activity will be covered up and none of the government company executives nor their congressional buddies will get prison time. One of the things these outfits did was fund a group called ACORN which, among other things was involved in election fraud. Not so very long back, they were caught in Kanawha County by the County Clerk.
Some have noted that all this nefarious activity means absolutely noting to a key voting block which is the 30% of voters who pay no taxes whatsoever and feel that those who work should give them even more. A discussion along these lines got some folks hot at a recent political gathering out on a famous ridge. Some there thought that drilling should cease and that we should harness wind power. Of course those who "invest" in windmills get generous contributions from the rich uncle in Washington who redistributes money earned by taxpayers.
Gay Park noted that Jacques Frost left his calling card at her home the other morning although he has not yet made a serious call.
Some of the leasehounds who have been working in the local area were amazed to learn that natural gas has an odor when it comes out of the ground. They wanted to know how one "added perfume" before a free gas hookup was installed. Makes one wonder. It was reported that Mother Hope continues to drill wells up near the head of the West Fork. Equitable noted that they intended to be very aggressive in their Marcellus well program in West Virginia.
Chesapeake which has an immense PR program is now an advertiser on government radio. The company has made location for a horizontal well in the Huron shale on Little Left Hand in Roane County. The company permitted a vertical well to the Marcellus at over 7,000' on a 13 acre lease in Upshur County.
As reported earlier the financial problems with the postal system continue. While mail is delivered to local offices seven (7) days every week it is now proposed to make deliveries only on five (5) days. "Of course, that will be better."
Several area residents have been on the sick list including the Creston news writer. There have been deaths from the H1N1 flu in West Virginia now. While there has been lots of talk about the vaccine it is interesting to note that no one ever says where the vaccine is being made. Back when Madame Hillary was pushing socialized medicine she had federal laws enacted that forced all flu vaccine to be produced in foreign countries. One would assume that such is again the case with this new vaccine.
The cash for clunkers deal turned out real well for Japanese carmakers and GM (Government Motors) took a real hit with drastic declines in sales. As part of the "jobs program" GM is now going to make Hummers in the Peoples Republic of China. That, obviously, is progress, at least to those who consider themselves 'citizens of the world'.
In the political humor department several are chuckling that after the big eared one's buddies in Chicago, including Valerie Jarrett, his chief of staff, purchased all that slum land for the Olympic Village, they got left holding the bag after the dynamic duo's presentation fell flat over in Copenhagen. Many local folks would prefer their Copenhagen in the little flat container that makes a ring on one's blue jeans.
The fellow who owns the old Sylvester Kirby place at the mouth of Little Creek spent the week camping there. He lives in Illinois.
Chesapeake recorded an assignment transferring interests in leases in Calhoun County to Statoil, Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian government company that paid $5,666.66/acre for the privilege of drilling Marcellus shale wells on the company's acreage. It was learned that royalties from typical Marcellus wells in Pennsylvania are $250,000/year.
When Dominion (Mother Hope) fracted their last well in Calhoun County nearby wells ended up with 35% nitrogen causing some to be without burnable free gas, etc.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude is $63.75/bbl.
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