 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church.
Charles Russell was calling on Brother Euell, Parris Parsons & Ray Gumm at Miletree. Ray was "off his feed".
Some "gentlemen" from Roane County [or so they said] were looking for metal to harvest "junk out cars". They were suggested to return to Roane County.
A certain Calhoun resident whose domicile lacks some amenities decided he wanted to go to the Grandview take a warm shower and sleep in a nice bed, etc. Since he had no wheels, he paid his neighbors to take him over. Knowing for sure that he wouldn't be home, they went back & robbed his place.
Muckelwain Logging has been hauling out a lot of fine big logs.
The sub zero cold went away and now it is back to rain & mud.
The West Virginia Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom mobile agriculture lab is at the Arnoldsburg school this week.
Charles Russell was consulting with Dr. Suresh and received an excellent report.
The W. Va. Farm Bureau mobile agriculture lab will be at the grade school in Elizabeth starting on January 21. There will be an open house from 4 til 5 on Tuesday Jan. 21 for folks to tour the lab and if local Farm Bureau folks want to help with the students they should contact Mr. Heiney at the school. The mobile lab reaches elementary students to show how agriculture impacts their daily lives and receives rave reviews.
All "the smart people" like to insist that "bigger is better". More often than not such is NOT the case. A tank at a storage facility along the Elk River, down near the mouth sprung a leak and polluted the Elk River, above the intake for the water plant that supplies potable water to 300,000 people with 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, a compound used in coal treatment facilities. Seems no one was checking the odor of he intake water and no one was watching the leaky tank at the chemical storage facility and the containment dike needed repairs. Also none of the bureaucrats bothered to read the Tier 2 filing from Freedom Enterprises advising of the chemical on location. The economic impact on the town down at the Mouth of the Elk is mind boggling ,let along the problems of all who reside there and can't use their water even to wash their hands. Having rain barrels to catch water for laundry & hauling water from the spring may be more cumbersome and certainly not "chic" but problems like this one are avoided. Some Roane & Clay residents are impacted as well as Public Service Commissions were urged to buy water from the big boys. Not so long ago, the community down near the Mouth of Tucker's Creek dismantled their plant so they could buy water from Wood County -- easier that way.
Several calves & lambs have been arriving on the scene. Some calves decided to "show up" the bitter cold night.
David Hula, a farmer down in Virginia harvested an average of 454 bushel of corn/acre on his corn land.
Union New Jersey based JayBee (Randy Broida) had a bad spill on a location in Tyler County as unknown chemicals spilled/leaked. The firm faces possible forfeiture of their bond.
Triad Hunter has a Schramm drilling rig on their Utica well near Allen's Run west of Middlebourne. The folks in the area went together to lease their Marcellus to Triad for $4000/acre and then they said ----no, no, no too much we'll only pay $3,500 unless you cut the royalty. The response was no so the company said, "Well if you give us the Utica too we'll pay the $4,000. Since the area Marcellus & Utica are the best shale producers in the nation and the big boys paid up to $25,000/acre bonus for lesser shale plays the home folks got taken to the cleaners once again.
Noble Energy has now a Utica location in Tyler County on the former Davis farm that the company purchased in fee near Joseph's Mills on W. Va. 18. The firm is doing Marcellus drilling on the property also.
A man who has substantial oil and gas investments noted that Chesapeake drilled two Marcellus laterals across a tract he had in Harrison County that was held b y an old well and did not have a pooling clause. They told him, "Sign this paper and we'll pay you the $15,000 we owe you in royalties>" He said, "What do you mean? We haven't agreed on terms." Well the matter is yet unresolved but he asked the boys about the fluids that are being hauled from the tanks on location. "Oh that is water; this is dry gas!" "Well, if that's the case why do the tankers not go to the injection well but instead go to where the oil/condensate is gathered?" No answer.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude is $90.72 with ALS (drip) fetching $73.21, Marcellus &Utica light $81.65 and medium $90.72/bbl.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
