 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There will be a Lenton service at the Burning Springs M. E. church Sunday, March 11 at 7 P. M. This is in addition to the regular service which starts at 9 A.M. Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment there Sunday morning.
On Monday, March 12 at 6 P. M. there will be a formal dedication of the walking path at the Creston Community Building. There will be gifts for those who attend including the meters that tell one how far they have walked. The contractors have been busy placing the rock for the base and it is hoped that later a black top surface can be added.
On Tuesday, March 13 at 7 P. M. at the Wood County 4-H grounds there will be a forum for all the Commissioner of Agriculture candidates. All those who want to meet and listen to the candidates answer questions should plan to attend.
Gay Park has been on the sick list inasmuch as it seems she caught the nasty virus that has been going around.
It was determined that Ottie Brumfield had a stroke but is now better. His wife, Pauline, will go down to the Mouth of the Elk later this month for a Tee Vee shooting of "Rosie the Riveter" which will be televised at some later date. She is among those women who went to work in defense plants during World War II helping with the war effort.
The Big Eared One says he is out to help the poor but, strangely enough he recently held a fundraiser on Wall Street where fat cat couples paid $71,000 each to attend. Some of them obviously plan to prosper from hope and pick up the change.
Austin Greathouse was visiting Austin Westfall over the weekend.
Charles Russell was dining with Euell Russell & Ray Gumm. Paris Parsons is at Miletree also undergoing therapy after a knee replacement that hasn't gone so well.
Bilco Construction is working on installing new piling at the Oil & Gas Park at Burning Springs. A previous piling job at the same site had failed to hold the roadway. There are timed stop lights to control traffic.
The crew on the new and improved bridge with a curve in a straight stretch at Annamoriah appears just about ready to apply the concrete. During the big rain the other day there was enough water on the existing structure that one could hydroplane. Luckily no one did and the water only blocked a few roads in the Creston area.
The local area had a few flurries Sunday and they gave a unique look to spider webs. The amphibians had been singing their little hearts out and crocuses (where the deer hadn't eaten them), Julia Joyce's daffodils, chickweed, water maples, etc are all blooming and the other day W. Harrison Schenerlein IV picked a meal of hairy bittercress for his grandfather to eat.
A brown stud horse has showed up on Monroe Ridge. While the critter does not appear to be fat he may be sassy since there are some mares out there. It is hoped that the owner come and take the equine back home, wherever that may be.
Johnny Staats, Ray Nicholas, Mr. & Mrs. Allen Thomas, Peal Bollinger, Florence Bishop, Amy Reed, Casper Shuman, Roger Bush, Mr. & Mrs. Junior Hughes, Donnie Hughes, Jerry Campbell, County Commissioner & Mrs. Robert Lowe and lovely daughter Logan, Mr. & Mrs. Robert Lowe, Sr., Magistrate C. David Roberts, Reggie Grimmett, Mr. & Mrs. Bill Ward were all attending to business in Creston.
Mr. & Mrs. Edward Browning were driving around on the Richardsonville road one day last week. He works as a junker.
Charles Russell was consulting with Dr. Suresh at Grantsville.
It has been learned that the federales have taken over the investigation and prosecution of the extensive 'agricultural' operations on the Asa Haney hill at the head of Little Creek. Some were indicted by the local grand jury while others were not mentioned.
The long arm mower has cut back roadways in the Creston area. It is not clear why limbs had to be removed from apple & peach trees that would never impact drivers but would provide treats for travelers.
Mike Ballard, Starla & Jessie Ferrell, Kasey Ferrell, Larry Ferrell & Mary, Kathy Parsons & Gary as well as Brandon Ferrell were calling on Mr. & Mrs. Carl Ferrell. Donna had been on the sick list but has whipped the viruses.
Antero announced that they inked a deal with a landowner group in Noble County Ohio for $5,900/acre. It was not clear whether the agreement covered just the Marcellus or it & the Utica.
Chesapeake announced that they sold a 25% interest in 619,000 acres of Ohio Utica leases to Total SA the French concern for $2.32 billion which calculates out to $15,000/acre. which means prices are getting closer to what was paid for equivalent interests in Texas & Louisiana. A Cabot man called a landowner in southern Wood County again on their big offer of $100/acre and said that Cabot & Exco which is really Enron have gone together to develop southern Wood County. Of course Cabot will receive 25% royalty for the oil & gas that they own in the project. It will be interesting to see how they treat the liquids and whether the 1/8th oil royalty owners will get to share in the find.
Stone had reported in a press release that their wells in the "wet" Marcellus were making 70 - 100 bbl of condensate/mmcf (million cubic feet) as well as 40 bbl of natural gas liquids. Reports from the field were, of course, much greater & confirmed.
When going through old deep well records for this area there was no reference to the Utica which is a field much larger than the Marcellus which has been described as the largest gas field in the world. The reason the Utica wasn't mentioned was because the Utica, which sits on top of the Trenton/Black River horizon is called the Martinsburg shale. It is 1110 feet thick on the test well drilled by Exxon on Slate Creek near the Wirt County line, 1155 feet thick in the well drilled in 1972 on the Mount Zion ridge in Calhoun County and 1150 feet thick in the McCoy/Belgrove well drilled in Jackson County near the Roane County line. The Utica ranges from Michigan to New Jersey and covers thousands of square miles of Canada as well and, it appears that almost all of West Virginia is included.
Shirley Rush said that he was looking for oil field work.
The other day a Braxton County native was checking up on his family oil and gas and his wife noted that she was from North Dakota where the Bakken shale field is being drilled. She noted that starting pay at McDonalds is $15/hour and that one widow lady who has a big house is renting out her rooms in shifts as housing is so scarce.
The price of local Penn grade crude oil fell $2.14/bbl to $105.25 with Appalachian light sweet fetching $90.68. The price of gasoline continues to climb with talk of $5 gasoline. When the Big Eared One's energy secretary, Professor Chu talked before congress he said the administration was OK with the high gas prices as that would force people to use less oil. At one point mopeds were suggested as well as moving close to one's workplace and, of course taking rapid transit which did exist formerly in a lot of W. Va. until the liberals did away with it "in a great leap forward". Earlier Professor Chu said he wanted to get gasoline prices in America to the level they are in Europe. If there were stations available one could put a natural gas carburetor on most vehicles and travel cheap but the Big Eared One's buddies don't want that apparently either as that would not be redistributing the wealth. Tax dollars must be spent on windmills that seem to never turn and solar panels that are made in Mexico & communist China.
| 
