Rev. Kevin Gillespie filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. Church and served Holy Communion.
Creston once again had a Halloween party and the event was directed by Bobbi Moore, mayor of Elizabeth who was dressed as a beautiful fairy. A wide assortment of characters came to the event ranging from toddlers to grown men. Magistrate Dave Roberts along with county commissioner candidates John Griffin & Ron Amos were the judges but, aside from them there were no politicians or notables although some were said to be Tee Vee stars. One of the favorites was a teddy bear. Sasquach & a space alien were among those who came as did a ghost that obviously had returned “from the other side.” Hay rides were provided for the daset, complete with ghastly encounters including a skeleton riding his Harley. The old Rader Hotel at Burning Springs was into the season too with ghosts taking over the second floor, or at least the windows facing W. Va. 5.
Phillip Belt, age 71, of Burning Springs passed away. He was the son of Harry & Gae Belt and the father of Nathan Belt.
Braden Ferrell went on a DNR sponsored youth deer hunt and bagged some venison with a 300 Black Rifle. Programs that encourage young folks to hunt & fish are obviously good things.
Some hay was made in the Creston area over the weekend.
With the killing frosts now many leaves have fallen but some trees along the Ann’s Run road are still quite colorful. A flock of waxwings was in Creston on Saturday eating pokeberries.
It was reported that the turnout for early voting was high & that there was a lot of interest in the election. It was reported that threats have been made to folks would oppose a scheme to eliminate tax for out of state firms via Amendment 2 on the ballot. Earlier there had been threats saying, “You’d better not oppose this or we will get your industry next!” Obviously, one is dealing with “nice folks”. Reminds one of when after the Tawney case where the gas company was found to have defrauded mineral owners of hundreds of $millions & the state & counties of $millions in severance & ad valorem taxes, Broadway Joe, who was then playing governor, promised the late Aubrey McClendon that he’d have the legislature pass a measure to set aside the jury judgement. Of course that didn’t happen but no effort was made to collect the taxes owed. As Leona Helmsley famously said, “Only little people pay taxes.” A powerful group want to shift the tax load in West Virginia to home & farm owners and the 1932 Taxation Limitation Amendment prevent them from having their way.
A fellow named Chuck Conner is running for house of Delegates for most of Wirt County. Turns out he is endorsed by the Working Families Party, the group that backs Occasional Cortex, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib, & Cori Bush. The organization was started in 1998 in Brooklyn, New York and has been thanked by the Communist Party USA for helping candidates they supported get across the finish line. A list of candidates backed by the group in W. Va. might give one pause for thought.
Wirt County Creston residents will vote at the Community Building while some Calhoun residents can vote at Brooksville while others will have to motor to Mt. Zion to cast ballots.
It was reported in the news that there is only a 25 day supply of diesel fuel in the nation. Will this be like the baby formula fiasco? No new oil refineries have been built in America for over 50 years and the ruling junta has been issuing new regulations to force closure of several existing facilities. It has been stated that no new ones will be built because of the hostile environment facing coal, oil & gas as the “ruling elite” want to push Chinese solar panels, Chinese made wind farms and the magic ‘Pixie Dust” that is said to work wonders, especially if one knows the magic words to use during incantations. Of course oil, gas & coal are the raw materials that are used to make the plastics that make modern life possible.
Trinidad & Tobago are said to be the main suppliers, aside from Vladimir, for LNG for Boston a Fauxcohantas has made it clear she does not want her wigwam heated by natural produced in the USA. Production has fallen off in Trinidad & Tobago so now the plan is to take gas from the communist government of Venezuela to the islands and then send it on to New England where no new pipelines are allowed to bring gas from the Utica & Marcellus fields.
Reflecting the turbulent economic times the NYMEX price of natural gas in one week dropped 97 cents from $6.47/mmbtu to $5.50/mmbtu even though the amount of natural gas produced fell. Part of this may be related to a situation in west Texas where new drilling has generated way more gas than there is pipe line capacity to hold & transport with talks of a negative price. This price drop also impacted the LNG prices with gas bound for the orient fetching just $32.11/mmbut and that headed for Europe, a place that is facing drastic conditions during the winter, bringing $37.30/mmbtu. Antero & EQT are big into the LNG export but, of course, royalty and tax payments are not based on the prices they sell the liquified natural gas. Fictional prices will be used, of course. Presently LNG exports are 11bcf/day & it is said by 2030 the amount will be 28 bcf/day.
Antero which is the 5th largest gas producer in the nation & #2 LNG exporter reported that 3rd quarter profits were $560 million and production was 3.2 bcfe/day.
Ed Hardman has been working on the gas plumbing at the Creston Community Building. On October 26 the three trustees for the building met at the school board office in Elizabeth to sign the contract for the lease of the old school house to the Creston Community. Charles White wanted it duly noted that they all arrived at exactly the same time.
A local outfit that is selling a small tract of land to an individual on a land contract received a letter from Michigan wanting to purchase the land contract. One wonders how such information is found & transmitted.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude is $86.90/bbl. with condensate fetching just $70.90/bbl. with Marcellus & Utica light binging $77.90 & medium $87.90/bbl.
