 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The big Creston Halloween party will be Saturday evening, starting at 5 P. M. at the Creston community building. The gala event is for children of all ages, roughly from 9 days to 90 years. There will be a covered dish meal [bring some goodies if you can], things could get scary, there will be hayrides, one scary, not so much so and contests for the usual sort of things, pretty, ugly, scary, original and such. This is the one night when one can dress up and be somebody, even somebody important. Usually there are visitors from Transylvania, Washington, D. C., Hades, the land of fairy tales, pop culture [one time one of the Kardashians showed up] etc. Donations of money and candy can be directed to Donna Sue at 304-275-3202.
One of the weatherization workers was calling in Creston the other day promoting Chinese made mercury light bulbs. Before federal mandates, light bulbs (the regular kind that do not contain hazardous substances) were made in West Virginia. It was noted that the Charles Russell residence was turned down "because there was or might be lead paint since it was old".
Ira and Tim Lynch, Florence & Frankie Sandy and Charles Russell were among those calling on Euell Russell at the Miletree Center. Charles was also calling on Mrs. Tanner, Parris Parsons and Ray Gumm.
Jenny Belt is scheduled to be checked out at the Cleveland Clinic concerning her ticker troubles.
Some folks have been out and around harvesting bushytails and venison, the latter with bows & arrows.
Bill Brown & Thorn Roberts were calling in Creston one day last week.
It was learned that the Big Eared One and his merry band of Marxists are making new more difficult regulations for drilling oil & gas wells and it is understood that the new rules will add about 11% to the cost. OSHA which was supposed to protect workers has decided to implement UN (world government) rules and some federal "expert" has ruled that salt water [brine] is "hazardous waste". One might wonder where do they think one obtains table salt or saline solution for hospital use. The federales are also leaning on Pennsylvania and Ohio to adopt new rules to slow drilling.
One local family learned about one of the new federal mandates one must comply with in order to purchase an existing house that "might be" in the flood plain. One must pay $600 to have a special survey done to ascertain the elevation of the property. Not so long back a Calhoun businessman had to bring in a special engineer from Richmond Virginia to satisfy the federal bureaucrats as to the elevation of his property. That, of course, cost much more than $600. "We are from the government and we are here to help you."
The "big boys" led by EQT (Equitable) are telling the folks down at the Mouth of Elk why they need to have the legislature and Earl Ray pass forced pooling [lease integration] legislation because otherwise they might have to pay West Virginia fair royalties, etc. Back over 100 years ago they ripped off the state & the citizens with flat rate gas wells which are still producing and now they want to take expenses out of royalties to cut down on county taxes and defraud land & mineral owners. Antero and other Marcellus shale operators are paying 20% royalties or more but the biggest chunk goes to "the poor Rockefeller family companies", etc.
The 13% government shut down is over and it made it clear who stood for the ordinary taxpayers and who sided up with the Big Eared One and caved. Sen. McVain, McConnell and some others showed a complete lack of moral leadership and made it clear that their power and position are much more important than the future of the nation. Of course the government controlled media vilified those who stood on principle.
Antero noted that by the year 2020 there will be 20 billion cubic of natural gas/day produced from the Marcellus shale and the average cost of production is $1.03/mcf. The company said that by next year they will have one billion cubic feet of processing [fractionation] capacity and can make 20,000 bbl of ethane/day. Their Blanche unit in Ritchie county makes or will make 18.1 million cubit feet of gas/day which is 52% liquids and the Constable unit makes or will make 19.3 million cubic feet (MMCF) per day with 51% gas liquids.
Local residents are having to contend with government ladybugs [Asiatic beetles] which were spread in the area by the Clinton duo and stink bugs.
Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. church and served Holy Communion. He also announced that there would be a wedding November 9 at the New Home (Mayberry) church. One Burning Springs resident said she was checking out her dresses to be sure she had something suitable for the occasion.
Pauline Brumfield who lives just down Route 5 from Creston is a poet in addition to being a musician. She wrote the following not so long back;
I love my beans & taters,
My biscuits & creamed tomatoes,
I was slender in my youth,
Now I'm fat & that's the truth.
As a kid, there wasn't lots of food -
But mush & milk was mighty good,
Greens & ground hog, mushrooms & mulberries,
May apples, chestnuts & plums & cherries.
Now there's such good grub galore,
Just get ready & go to the store.
Now I eat meat, melons & such.
God sure blesses us so much.
Some second cutting hay was cut in Creston over the weekend.
The big "rollout" of Obamacare continues to be, shall we say, a typical government boondoggle. After spending over $1/2 billion of the computer system it doesn't work (30,000 or so have signed up) and it was made clear that information that one must report may be compromised so that one is susceptible to identity theft. One local banker found that she "had purchased a $2.000 computer for someone she didn't know". Some years back the Creston correspondent's driver's license number was used on a check by a damsel in Kanawha County that he never met to purchase malted beverages. That problem took a year to resolve. The so called navigators are in all to many instances Acorn operatives and folks with similar backgrounds, just the folks one would want to share all your personal business with.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude is $98.31 with Appalachian light sweet (drip) fetching $77.65 and Marcellus & Utica light $92.32 and medium $99.81/bbl. One barrel of oil contains 42 gallons so one can relate the price to that of gasoline and diesel fuel, etc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
