 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Winter weather has finally caught up with the Creston area in spite of the uproar from the global warming enthusiasts.
Reba McClung Smith Pethel, age 91, passed away after a long bout with Alzheimer's disease. A registered nurse who had many diverse interests was born on Spring Creek, a daughter of Walter & Sarah Belle McGill McClung. The McGill family formerly lived on the Richardsonville Road just up the West Fork from Creston.
There will be an informational meeting on bedbugs Tuesday, January 12 at 6:30 P M. at the Heritage Park building in Spencer. Bedbugs, lice, scabies & such were almost wiped out but then with the "new enlightened approach" to living they are back again to torment ordinary folks who practice clean living. A Creston native told a story that happened something over a century ago when she was about 10 years old. She and another girl whose father was involved in business with her father were friends always played together and, it came to pass that it was Easter Sunday and "everyone" dressed their best, sort of Creston's response to the Easter Parade. The two young girls sat on the back row of the church and the daughters of a prominent [and haughty] family sat in front of them. One of the girls in the prominent family was wearing a sombrero type hat and one of the girls noticed that a bedbug crawled out of the top of the hat. At that point the lesson was lost as all attention was on the bedbug & its travels. First it came down from the peak to the brim and then it crawled out to the edge and started going around the perimeter of the hat. At that point the two girls on the back row had to leave the church as they could no longer hold their laughter at the activities of the bedbug.
The educrats down at the Mouth of the Elk said they "repealed common core" to shut down the turmoil but teachers report that such is still being taught. One might conclude that the intent is to make West Virginia students third rate folks in an America that is being made second rate by those who despise America's excellence and success.
Alvin & Nancy Engelke were visiting W. Harrison Schenerlein IV & sister Rea. Harrison visited the Hernando de Soto National Park where the gold seeking Spaniard landed looking for gold and other riches to take back to Spain. He, of course, found no gold but did create lots of havoc, death & destruction in his search for gold in greater quantities than found with the Aztec & Incas.
Some local residents attended Chairman Woody Ireland's so-called Stakeholder meeting on Atty. George Patterson's forced pooling bill that the big out of state boys want the legislature to pass for them. Charlie Wilfong, president of the W. Va. Farm Bureau noted that if one was going to be forced into a lease the royalty should be at least 20% which is the royalty that the State of W. Va. is paid on new leases. He also said there should be transparency and accountability so that mineral owners and the various taxing agencies (State, County, Municipal) would know the actual volumes of products produced and the actual prices received at actual arm's length transactions. Chairman Woody said that such could not be put in the bill as that would cause it to be triple referenced when introduced in the legislature which is political speak for "Atty. Patterson and his clients [the big boys] do not want this at all for it would force them to pay the correct amounts, both in royalties and taxes." The present answer is, "Oh we'll introduce another bill that will cover that [sometime]."
Both EQT and the Rockefeller companies have made it clear that they want the 1/8th language in the bill as they have no intention of paying modern royalties on the big plays in the biggest oil & gas field in the world which just happens to have West Virginia in the middle. It is clear that the big boys want to pull off a major theft from the state's citizens and they want the gullible and those whose actions might be questioned in the legislature to do the stealing for them.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude dropped to $32.16/bbl. with condensate falling to $13.16, Marcellus & Utica light $26.16 and medium $32.16/bbl.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
