 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The big, final for the year, Creston ATV poker run will be held Saturday, September 26. Signups are from 9 A. M. until noon and it should be a fun ride with lots of water and mud. Whilst laying out the ride one four wheeler became mired in the mud. The rider had to be pulled from the mire and it took two ATVs with winches to extricate the stuck four wheeler. Riders will see lots of game, oil & gas wells, scenic vistas, rock formations, historic areas and "play areas". Gayle Grim, who now lives in Florida, Eliot White, Garry Anderson, Dan & Stephanie Baxter were among those laying out the ride.
There will be a revival Tuesday, September 29, starting at 7 P. M. at the Burning Springs M. E. Church with Rick Williams giving the message and Wednesday, September 30 at the New Home (Mayberry) Church south of Palestine on W. Va. 14.
The Creston Neighborhood Watch litter pickup scheduled for Sept. 19 had to be cancelled as the Buckeye contractor came back and resumed paving of W. Va. 5 from the top of the Creston hill to the Annamoriah bridge. Arrangements must have been made to allow the blacktop trucks to cross the Creston bridge. Included in the truckers are the Texas trucks.
Several of Frankie Mowrey's family were calling on her at the Miletree Center and she was having a good day being able to recognize and communicate with her visitors.
Some area folks have been making apple butter.
Quite a bit of hay has been put up and a lot of the corn grown in the county went into silage.
Several local folks and the new Wirt County road supervisor attended the 811 (Miss Utility) meal and training held at the shrine temple in Parkersburg. It was noted that if there was an incident on a high pressure gas line the evacuation radius is over 3,000 feet.
Columbia Gas Transmission (Nisource) announced that the big, hush, hush pipeline that is to go through the area will be a 36" that starts somewhere and ties into their system at Leach Kentucky which is just south of the big refinery at Catlettsburg/Ashland. The $2.7 billion project will soon be made public with a route for local folks to inspect.
The Wirt road crew finished up the surface treatment job on the Ann's Run road but they did not seal it with a course of nines as was formerly the procedure. Apparently Broadway Joe and Earl Ray decided that such was not necessary. The crew had been having mower problems [poor equipment purchased as noted in the recent federal indictments] so residents were amazed to find mowing happening on Saturday.
Charles Russell was calling on Paris Parsons, Ray Gumm & brother Euell at the Miletree Center. Fat Pat the oilfield rat reported that he got to go home after a consultation with Dr. Christianson.
Four Wirt residents attended the legislative interim committee meeting down at the Mouth of the Elk when the state tax department biggies told the legislators that the report of the severance tax figures from the big out of state players was on the honor system. Later at the forced pooling meeting a gas measuring expert noted that if one did not do thing correctly one could easily cheat 30%. The tax department people also noted that mineral owners are obligated to pay county tax on their "gross" royalties even though with many of the big new wells. While one might have had "gross" royalties of $100,000 with all the deductions one might only receive $30,000 but instead of paying about $1,300 in county tax the wise ones down under the golden dome require that the taxpayer shell out about $4,400 to the county. Of course all this is a big tax break for the out of state companies that operate the wells.
The "stakeholder" meeting on the 'new' big company forced pooling bill was to get the bill "finished up" so the companies could go out and "sell it" to the rubes as being a "good deal". The bill says that those forced will get a 1/8th royalty (something mandated by the flat rate gas well bill passed in 1982 guaranteed) but there is no way, under the proposed bill that one can ascertain the actual volumes of products nor the real prices for which they are sold. The legislative lawyer, who obviously answered to George Patterson the big boys' lawyer, said transparency and accountability would be in a later bill that will be passed "someday" the new day in the week which will happening sometime after the hot place freezes over. it has been already ascertained that both EQT and Chesapeake base their royalties and tax payments on sham transactions without any actual exchange of money. It was noted that EQT wants to pass a bill like they slipped through in Pennsylvania that gives them carte blanche to pay what they deem proper for royalties and allows old leases to just be like new ones. In Pennsylvania the governor that signed that bill was "retired" by those he betrayed trying to be "pro-business" but actually acting like a despot practicing crony capitalism.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude fell to $43.68/bbl. with condensate fetching only $20.68, Marcellus & Utica light $37.68 and medium $43.68/bbl.
The Creston area had another interruption of internet service.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
