 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
A big crowd was on hand for the first Creston auction of the season. The next auction will be November 5. Those present included Wirt County Commissioner Robert Lowe, his comely daughter Logan and his father and Calhoun County Commissioner Bob Weaver. Jim Bush and wife Barbara were there and Jim noted that whenever it let up on the rain, haymaking would resume.
Rev. Keith Belt was under the weather and he had to cancel his preaching for the week. Gay Park led the service at the Burning Springs M. E. church.
A number of local residents participated in the Pioneer Day celebration in Elizabeth.
Andrew Schreckengost, "Butch" Pursley, Donna S. Ferrell, Amanda Richards, Junior & Jon Hildreth, W. Harrison Schenerlein IV & Mr. & Mrs. Gene Hopkins were among those who attended the BD Oil Gathering's annual oily pig roast feed at Marietta.
Charles Russell was among the Creston residents who dined at the annual FFA beef barbecue at the high school in Elizabeth.
Cecil Ralph Griffin, Sr., age 87, passed away after suffering a stroke. C. Romeo Sr., as he was sometimes known, was one who lived a full life, taught others his skills and was active to the last. He was out and about mowing the lawn at the church, mowing at John's new house in Creston and tinkering on his chariot, actually installing a new water pump not long before his stroke and on that day he helped or supervised "Sis" pack boxes. Cinda Miller was among the mourners at the funeral. Burial was in the Beatty graveyard at Burning Springs.
Gay Park was having chariot troubles but the local mechanics, after numerous calls and a trip to a junkyard, got her back on the road again.
Orders & Haynes continue to place I beams at the Annamoriah bridge although they were held up for a while since water was up around the tracks on the cranes.
When the Wirt road crew started taking up the berm along the dePue straight and putting down new material folks wondered what was going on and then when the berm was blacktopped some concluded that Peanut must really have the stroke to have the road widened in front of his residence. Turns out that one of those remote sensor weight and speed units is being installed to keep track of what Creston folks do, as well as those who pass through the community. Big Brother is always watching.
Jerry Campbell returned after attending a military reunion in San Antonio Texas. He was none the worse for wear after his sojourn in the Lone Star State.
W. Harrison Schenerlein IV was visiting in Ohio Amish country where he gathered cooking supplies and acquired pumpkins for Halloween. Corn and soya beans looked good in those parts although quite a bit of the corn used for ensilage had already been harvested.
Consolidation Coal (Consol) is drilling a Utica shale well just south of Sugar Creek, Ohio and the arguments over fracking are going on in those parts too even though the area has shallow wells all around that have all been fracted. It was reported that one of the recent Utica wells came in making 18 million cubic feet of gas/day along with 800 bbl of oil and that the oil production is holding up.
Ryan Cunningham d/b/a Cunningham Energy and Black Crow has been leasing acreage in the Utica play and has offered prizes for the first who sign up with him. Up in Hancock County it was learned that because of the Utica (deeper than the Marcellus) leases are fetching up to $6,000/acre bonus and royalties in the 20% range. Black Crow made the news after a spill of from 25 to 50 bbl of oil into Indian Creek in Kanawha County.
Charlie Menefee was attending to business in Elizabeth one day last week.
Some oil and gas abstractors are in Wirt County again.
Brandon Setzer and Helen Morris were calling at the Engelke residence Sunday afternoon. Brandon is doing some work on Jim Morris's house.
Suellen Marie Arthur noted that she was going to move to Mineral Wells.
The price of local Penn grade crude oil fell $2.94/bbl to $74.50 reflecting the economic gloom and the upcoming double dip recession caused by the economic policies espoused by the Big Eared One and others who do the bidding of George Soros and other shadowy characters who want to fundamentally change America. These, of course, include the bunch presently demonstrating on Wall Street and elsewhere. Up in Ohio gasoline was $3.06/gallon or 45 cents/gallon cheaper than it was in Marietta and Parkersburg.
Cattle prices remain high but Jim Bush said that he felt that the market could not sustain the high prices for the long term.
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