 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
There will be an Adopt a Highway litter pickup on Saturday, April 13, starting at 8 A. M. for the section of W. Va. 5 starting at the Calhoun County line and going down below the former Marvin E. "Buck" Smith residence. Willing workers will gather at the Creston Community Building to start. Obviously all able bodied residents are urged to participate. The activity is sponsored by the local Neighborhood Watch.
The Creston ATV Poker Run will be held Saturday, April 20th at the Creston Community Building. Signup is from 9 'til noon and all riders must be back by 6 P. M. to be in the running to win. The route is a fun ride with lots of fun places to see (and play) so, for new folks, it isn't a race. There will be breakfast along with all sorts of goodies, like cornbread and beans, 50/50, tee shirts, etc.
A Community Building cleanup has been scheduled for May 9, 10 & 11 with the idea that different folks will have at least one of those days available to work cleaning, painting, etc. Everyone is welcome to pitch in and help.
When "Buck" Smith sold out down on the old Petty place he moved to Florida but he has now returned to the local area apparently having determined that the "sunny south" was not all it was advertised as being.
Mr. & Mrs. Joe Walker were calling on Mr. & Mrs. Holly Roscoe Greathouse, Jr. one day last week.
"Peanut" Bunch was attending to business in Elizabeth.
Wirt County Commissioner Robert Lowe, his wife and parents were attending to business in Creston Saturday evening on the occasion of the Creston auction. Commissioner Lowe reported that progress is being made on getting the indexing of the Wirt records so that all will be available on the computer.
W. Harrison Schenerlein IV got to meet Willie of Duck Dynasty & then got to see a sting ray swimming in the water.
It was learned that the W. Va. Department of Education has adopted the "Common Core" school curriculum as part of the "Stimulus program". Common Core was designed by the Big Eared One's long time friend and associate, the unrepentant Marxist domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Common Core dumbs down the curriculum and new standardized tests are written using the new method. Under the new rules all schools, private, church and home schoolers must use the new program or lose their "accreditation". In addition, there will be gathered 400 data points on each child including parents religion, financial status, political activities, etc. and when totally implemented all educational control will come from down in the swamps along the lower Potomac. The State Board of Education made a start by firing Mrs. Darrell McGraw [a/k/a Jorea Marple] who put the program in place, now they need to clean house and send the program to file 13 along with all who were in favor.
A former local resident who is a retired teacher in Wood County was appalled when she learned that, apparently under the new program, her granddaughter is being taught arithmetic by learning how to count on her fingers. It should be noted that the child has no learning difficulties.
New information has been obtained on Antero's purchase of leases from Enron in Ritchie & Doddridge Counties for $647 million. In addition to the cash there will be a 20% override (ORR) in addition to the 1/8th royalty. In a recent Marion County case sent to the federal court Judge Keeley has stated that there is no case law in West Virginia where, under old leases that only paid 1/8th (or less) and the huge well pads and vast sums of money generated from the new wells were not in the "contemplation of the parties". Thus the W, Va. Supremes are going to have to make a ruling. One very knowledgeable oil & gas attorney noted that no one should sign any lease modifications on old leases until after the state supremes make their ruling. Obviously land and mineral owners will be able to command larger percentage royalties as well as significant signature bonuses.
Locally, the weather has been warm with buds swelling, the USDA's multiflora rose starting to grow and ramps up big enough to harvest.
Charles Russell was attending to business in Spencer and visited with brother Euell, Ray Gumm, Mrs. Tanner and Parris Parsons.
Bill Moyers who is a big poobah at PBS, the government broadcasting system, said the Pledge of Allegiance is "a lie . . . a whopper of a lie" and then Georgetown law perfesser Louie Seidman suggested that we should get rid of the Constitution and start over. Apparently the coakroaches feel confident crawling out from under the loose boards and saying what they really think. Many fear our nation is in grave danger from those who want a "fundamental transformation" just as happened in Eastern Europe after World War II, etc. With the youth not learning the basics of American history many would never know why folks came to America and why the nation once founded prospered for well over 200 years.
Mary Reno & friends from Ravenswood & Melissa Ferrell & friend from Pittsburgh were among those calling and visiting Mr. & Mrs. Carl Ferrell & family.
Mr. & Mrs. Jim Bush, Eric Lupardus, Bill Ward, Pearl Bollinger, Sharma Lott, Paula Hayes & Jacob Robinson were among those attending to business in Creston over the weekend.
Under direction from Earl Ray, and likely Broadway Joe, the local road crew has been cutting hard maples, wild cherries, locusts and other healthy trees along W. Va. 5 and smashing up the brush along the road. One local resident who lives along Route 5 noted that it looked worse than the damage from last year's big storm. Apparently such is now what is called "core maintenance". It was also noted that Wood County has been doing berm maintenance.
The Big Eared One is out campaigning and fundraising for the next election and talking against the Second Amendment. Texas & Colorado lawmen were shot down, obviously by drug gangs based in Mexico and the Mingo County sheriff was likewise "wasted" because he was cracking down on drug activity. Eric Holder sent lots of guns to the Mexican drug gangs and rules against law abiding citizens have no impact on criminals except to assure them that the citizens (or subjects) are unarmed. Broadway Joe, the formerly pro NRA feller, wants uniform registration, a/ka/ background checks, so the jack booted thugs can come and take all the guns and any ammo that might be found to buy.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude dropped to $93.10/bbl with drip fetching $82.59, Marcellus & Utica light $87.98 and medium $94.60/bbl
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