 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. Church & served Holy Communion.
Several area residents took in the Wirt County fair. Many local folks participated in the pageants, the exhibits, the animals and animal showmanship, the contests, the track events and just generally going and having a good time. Local residents won their share of blue ribbons, showmanship awards and other prizes. Gay Park noted she went to hear one of her favorite bands.
While waiting for the fireworks Saturday evening Charles Russell met a comely young lass who was impressed by the fireworks later. Turned out the girl is a great granddaughter of the late Laura and Vandall Meadows and the girl's mother, Sarah Middleton, R. N., was the home health nurse who was in charge of the home care Charles received while recovering from his burn.
Ted Menefee was seen squiring the lovely Lisa around down at the fair.
Donnie Hughes, two sisters and a comely friend, were calling on Alvin Engelke. Donnie & Alvin had gone to school together some years back and they all read the Creston news.
Cap'n and Mrs. Spock recently returned from a brief vacation/business
trip, via the Jukebox on Wheels. They called on Mr. and Mrs. William
Cooper in Virginia, and took in lots of scenery in W. Va. as well.
C. Romeo Griffin Sr. and associates Cooter & Lois Marks, (also Frosty,
Dixie, and Dottie) have been busy doing lots of mowing and attending to other matters whilest they were away.
It is now apparent that a temporary bridge is not being built at the Annamoriah bridge but the new one will be offset from what is now a straight section of highway. On Friday a monster crane was being moved and there was a K-Mart special on scene. Some presumed that a move was being contemplated without having an oversize and overweight permit.
The Wirt road crew did a fine job on surface treating Chestnut Run. It had been policy to let almost all the roads break up without doing any maintenance citing financial woes [and, of course, greater needs and political pull elsewhere].
The local area received some gentle showers along with some hard rains. Streams are drying up and pasture is definitely "under stress".
The Big Eared One had a gala birthday bash at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue down in the Potomac swamps where money was no problem. A well known Owl Hill resident shares the same "hatch date" but was not invited to the exclusive event which was reserved for fat cat donors and celebrities.
The folks down at the Mouth of the Elk finished up their redistricting legislation but not without more than the usual animosity. The little senator Unger's byword was "transparency" but one vote was held without several members having even seen a map. As it turned out the maps were prepared in a popular high dollar "watering hole" but when others came to the joint to look, the maps and papers were quickly gathered up and put out of sight. Some of the "betters" who 'represent' Kanawha County said that (in language that was easily understood) that those folks who lived up the hollows, rubbed Copenhagen, drove pickups & four wheelers and did manual work really were too stupid to choose wisely as to delegates, etc. Locally the congressional district stayed the same with only Mason County going to Nicky Joe's district to make up for the loss of population there. Under the rule of those down at the Mouth of the Elk, W. Va. has gone from 6 to 3 congressman or a loss of 50% but to hear them tell it, "W. Va. has prospered, etc." Of course in the last census most Creston residents were never even counted. Of course, it is good to know just how one rates.
After much pressure from the media the Republican leadership in Washington caved and allowed the Big Eared One his "debt increase' with little or no restrictions and certainly no substantial cuts to the bloated federal government or programs. It was said that if that wasn't done the US credit would be ruined and there would be misery & suffering. After passage of the 'compromise' the American government's credit rating was dropped and stocks are in free fall. Although fewer people were working in July than in June the unemployment rate "fell". Apparently this 'improvement' happened because of a decrease of the number in the work force. Apparently, if one used the number of workers in the 2008 workforce the unemployment rate would now be 11%. Presently, 45.8 million are drawing food stamps.
Nancy Engelke has been helping daughter Jane who is doing a photo shoot at Bethany. She and Anna Yates are helping care for baby Rea who has been cooperating with the venture.
Mountain Country Partners which owns numerous wells in Roane County got somewhat fouled up with the Securities & Exchange Commission for saying questionable things about the profitability of some of their wells and ended up being fined up in the six figures. New Jersey based Jay Bee (Randy Broda) was cited by OSHA for violations in Doddridge County.
Parkersburg resident Chester Sholes claimed the 50/50 ticket at the Creston ATV poker run. His chariot had broken down and he was late getting back to the community building.
At the direction of the Big Eared One, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, by document #ID: FMCSA-2011-0146 has suggested that to be able to run a farm tractor on any public road one must first have a CDL (Commercial Driving License) such as are presently required for cross country truck drivers, etc. The impact of this proposed new rule is obvious and many feel it is to help force a curtailment of farming in America. One should make one's voice heard.
The average price for local Penn grade crude for July was $92.2823/bbl. However, the current price fell $5/bbl to $82.00. The price of natural gas is below $4 but some of the "better gas" [either by ownership or BTU value] has been in he $8/MCF range. The fall in the price of crude oil has been said to be caused by the anticipated decline in usage because of the anticipated economic decline (double dip recession, etc.)
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