 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Carlos Nutter brought the Easter Sunday message and served Holy Communion at the Burning Springs M. E. Church.
The Creston Community was shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Kenneth Mowrey, age 56. Son of Frankie & the late Phillip Mowrey he only recently completed his new home down on the Petty place. He had undergone knee replacement surgery and was in therapy the next day when a blood clot hit his lung.
Several area residents followed the Jaime Oliver food controversy in Huntington. Oliver was well known for restoring healthy food to schools in England. He came to Huntington which, according to government statistics, has the fattest children in the nation. It seems, after some rough times he was able to get better food on the school lunch menus. The "nutrition" people and some others fought him tooth & nail over his "crazy" ideas of serving fresh wholesome food to the children.
The main problem, it turned out, was the federal food guidelines which made it difficult, if not impossible, to serve really healthful meals. Of course the bureaucrats who run the school systems want to comply to keep the funds coming and, of course, after while, teaching, healthy meals, healthy children & such must be placed below the top priority - more federal money. One is reminded about when the "nutrition expert" came to the Calhoun County schools and threw a hissy because the cooks used white corn meal [instead of the (as she thought) more nutritious yellow corn meal].
W. Harrison Schenerlein IV was among those calling on Euell Russell at Miletree Center in Spencer. He also took in the Creston auction and church services at Burning Springs. Sunday afternoon he celebrated his birthday.
Peach & pear trees, blue bells, bluets, Dutchman's breeches, toothworts are in bloom and the toads have been trilling. Grass is growing and lawns have been mowed and some fine muskellunge have been harvested.
The Creston area had quite a bit of helicopter traffic which was related, perhaps training before some local folks are deployed to Afghanistan.
Both the Wirt & Calhoun road crews have been working the berms and scraping and adding stone to the side roads.
The bridge crew came up and cut out around the hole that came in the Creston bridge and now it is prepared for new concrete in that area. As a result one lane is closed causing rather hazardous conditions inasmuch as there isn't much warning when one comes down the Creston hill, especially with a loaded truck.
Well known Calhoun musician Linda McCumbers, wife of fiddler Lester McCumbers, passed away at age 88.
Some of the congresscritters took offense when the execs of some of the nation's major firms announced major negative impacts to their firms bottom lines because of the passage of Obamacare. Of course another federal law requires them to publicly announce such changes to their finances. More and more of the ruling elite have now said that the real reason for the passage of "health care reform" was government control & redistribution of the wealth. Cuban dictator Fido Castro hailed the passage as "a miracle". 'Confidence' in the Congress was 'reaffirmed' when the gentleman from Georgia expressed concern that the establishment of a Marine base on Guam would cause the island to tip over. One can be sure he understands economics, history, etc. too.
Apparently, next up is "amnesty" for illegal aliens (perhaps so they can vote in 2010 & 2012) and "cap & trade", a/k/a cap & tax. Under the plan to shut down what remains of American industry and commerce electric bills would take a $1,700 annual jump and gasoline would go up 77 cents/gallon to provide more money for various federal programs. West Virginia with its coal mining is particularly vulnerable and the oil and gas industry is also "evil".
Back when Bush & Cheney were in Washington the rise of gasoline prices to the $3 range was all the news and loonies claimed that they were personally taking all the profits from the exorbitant fuel prices. Now the prices are going up again but the big eared one is not being blamed. Of course his transportation director, an Illinois politico, announced that automobiles will no longer be the chief beneficiary of federal (taxpayer) funds & that people should ride bicycles to the local light rail station or intermodal transportation hub.. While Morgantown has the BART or whatever to go between university campuses, likely local folks would have to somehow get to Pittsburgh, Washington, D. C. or such to enjoy the new 'way of the future'. Of course it could be that since Creston is in "flyover country" the elites couldn't care less how we manage or if we manage. After all, the feds let the locks & dams go out of the river and the Little Fiddler & his friends let the railroad be jerked out of Ritchie County after the taxpayers paid to have it rebuilt to modern standards.
Some local folks received cards from the census saying that they should return the forms that were left on their doors. The problem is, no forms were left. Apparently this problem has occurred all over the nation, especially in areas that did not vote for the Won. According to well placed sources, the local census has been having major problems including, but not limited to, an out of date list of names, addresses, etc. Those in charge refused to use current technology to make the job easier. One wonders why.
Consolidation Coal Co. announced that the federal government has approved their purchase of the wells & mineral properties of Dominion, formerly known as Consolidated or Hope for $3.5 billion. Consolidated also reported that the average reserve for each of their Marcellus shale wells is 3.5 bcf although the decline curve is rather steep. One of their biggest wells went from a daily production of 6.6 million to 1.6 million in less than a year.
The price of local Penn grade crude rose to $77.75/bbl.
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