 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The weather continues to be the #1 topic in the Creston area with more snow, rain, flooding and power outages. Wednesday evening wet snow started to fall and all electric service from above Brooksville to the route 5 bridge in Creston was out until Sunday afternoon. The main Little Kanawha and the West Fork both came up and many roads in the Creston area were closed by high water. As a point of reference the Little Creek bridge was submerged as was the road to the Creston Community Building. Needless to say there was no auction Friday night at Creston and it will not be rescheduled [alas and alack]. To go along with the snow and flooding the mercury again dropped and without power to keep water dripping and no heat tapes, etc. there was an excess of frozen pipes and even water tanks. The hardware stores have been doing well. When the snow melted off [where it did on Sunday] the Easter flowers were up. During the snow & cold the bird feeders were very busy with chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, white throated sparrows, red birds and an occasional towhee. Road conditions were terrible and there was no mail service on Thursday.
The Creston Community Easter party will be Sunday, March 29 at 2 P. M. Bring a covered dish and after dinner there will be an Easter egg hunt for those under age 12. Drinks will be provided by the community building and donations of Easter candy for the younger set would be appreciated. For details call Wilma at 304-275-3795 or Barb at 304-275-0006.
For those who plan ahead, the first Creston ATV poker run will be Saturday April 25.
The local "crew of the Starship Enterprise" -- Lt. Bumper Lollipop, Lt. Firecracker Red, Ensign L'eggs, Cap'n Drip, Cap'n Bubblicious, Cap'n Matt, Cap'n Spock and Admiral Debbie were all saddened to learn of the death of the inspiration of the star Trek segment of the Creston News, Leonard Nimoy, age 83, who passed away at his Bel Air, California home on February 27, 2015. Starring in the original series in the late 60s & several movies in later years, he leaves behind countless devoted "Trekkies" world wide.
Crews from Ohio Edison were the ones making repairs to the electric grid in this area. The workmen noted to local residents that they were appalled at the deplorable facilities that they found in the area. It seems that the W. Va. PSC (Public Service Commission) has long held the view that they are to protect the utilities rather than to demand that they provide first class service to the citizens of the state.
Some while back, a winter or so, it was reported in the Creston News that the state road shut down Dustin Jackson's timber operations on the Dihm place on Woodring Road just above Creston along the Little Kanawha. Now it seems that the state did not shut Dustin down in spite of the condition of the road. As a matter of fact, some years prior, another Jackson set up a saw mill in the middle of the state road and the highway bigs would not even make him move his facility and restore the site.
As the snow went off the pot holes have appeared with some that can break axles, bend rims, etc. I-77 has miles of potholes in lines where the Shoddy Paving Corp. was allowed to leave cold joints instead of doing hot mix paving correctly. For years the inspectors have noted that they are not allowed to force the "connected" contractors to do quality work.
The legislators voted to send the domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (and his buddies) Common Core packing much to the chagrin of the sophomoric state educrats who are squealing like the pigs that the new U. S. Senator from Iowa used to "treat". With the proposed ethane cracker West Virginia needs people with quality math backgrounds, likewise with new advances is drilling and oil & gas production petroleum engineers will be much in demand. Broadway Joe's little wife Gayle who likes to call the shots on education seems to want, at best, mediocre men who don't realize how badly they have been done in by the state's ruling oligarchy.
Alvin & Nancy Engelke were visiting W. Harrison Schenerlein IV and sister Rea. While traveling in the Carolinas it was noted that the state road there uses brine to treat the highways. The salt lobby in W. Va. won't, it would seem, allow the state road to use brine that could be obtained for free to keep roadways clear.
Seneca announced that their new Utica shale well in Tioga County Pennsylvania came in at 22.7 million or half of what Triad Hunter's Utica well in Tyler County's IP. The Tyler well is feeding 25 million cubic feet/day.
The big company forced pooling bill passed the House of Delegates and is now in the W. Va. State Senate. While some bones were thrown "as a compromise" the bill allows the big out of state outfits to take for pennies on the dollar mineral rights of those who know the value of the resource. The bill "sets in stone" royalty at 1/8th when it should be 1/4th and allows expenses to be deducted from the 1/8th royalty. Some even feel that the real intent of the law is to repeal the Tawney case, a class action lawsuit which showed that CNR (Columbia Natural Resources ) and Chesapeake were improperly taking expenses from royalties. At the time Broadway Joe promised Aubrey McClendon, the then president of Chesapeake that he would have the legislature set the lawsuit aside. Aubrey now operates in W. Va. as American Energy. "Corky" deMarco who is one of the big lobbyists said "it wasn't right that some should want big money for their leases when others 'gave them away'". If the big outfits were above board they would pay fair royalties rather than spend all their time trying to put the screws to West Virginia residents. Folks should tell their state senators that unless the poison pills are not taken out of the company bill it should be defeated. The bill allows EQT, CNX, etc to keep their outrageous flat rate gas wells and the $1/acre storage rights as well as their agreements that say that gas royalties should be paid on 12 cent/MCF gas.
Presently there are 62 rigs drilling in the Marcellus, 37 in the Utica with 108 in the Bakken and 149 in the Eagle Ford. Natural gas produced on Owl Hill in January fetched the vast sum of $1.35/MMBTU (dekatherm). The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude is $48.61/bbl. with condensate (drip) fetching $24.61, Marcellus & Utica light $42.61 and medium $48.61/bbl.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
