Meet Pearl Louria and Julia Burns, better known as the Happy Clippers. These two young women live at Washington Towers.  They took a tour of the bus this evening at National Night out. We had a great conversation. They shared with me that they have a group that clips coupons and they send them to the service men and women in Iraq. It seems the service people can use the coupons at the PX. They are also involved in a group called ummm. umm. well the Happy Hookers! They knit and crochet hats for the newborns at the local hospital. They also make lap blankets and many other items.

Isn't it awesome how the talents they have help serve others!  They could not keep a straight face when they told me the name... these ladies sure blessed us this evening with their visit.!

These young kids climbed aboard as well. Meet Vanessa Horseman, Kyliee Forsha and Dustin Forsha. I told them to smile pretty for all of you on the Batavian!

Got to love those Care-A-Van cookies!

Ok I admit it! I am a kid at heart! Of course I had to take in the face painting that was being done by the Girl Scouts! Here is my buddy Wes and I.

What an awesome night out ! I have never been to such an event before. I was really impressed! Thanks to all who organized the event!

Tonight's the night. At 5 in Batavia's Austin Park, the local coalition of National Night Out hosts its annual free event to show unity against crime.

It promotes the ongoing efforts to foster a safe, drug-free environment for everyone. People are also encouraged to put their porch lights on tonight to show support for a safe community.

The activities at Austin Park will be a great opportunity to have a fun, inexpensive family night in Batavia, according to Det. Rich Schauff of the Batavia Police Department.

The usual spray park and concession stand will be open, plus there'll be a bounce house for kids, fire trucks to see, a dunk booth, child identification kits, free bicycle licensing (bring your bike or its serial number) and more.

Perrywinkle, the rep for Perry's Ice Cream will be there as well as Homer from the Batavia Muckdogs. Speaking of dogs, state troopers will put on a canine demonstration of their powerful and well-trained four-legged aides.

Plus, music, a family movie, caricature drawings, Care-a-Van Ministries and reasonably priced food.

Batavian Lisa Barrett, a songwriter and performer, will sing her song "Share Your Light."

Besides many citizens, members of the local National Night Out coalition are:

• Genesee /Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Inc.
• Batavia Police
• City of Batavia Youth Bureau
• Genesee County Youth Bureau
• Drug Free Coalition
• Drug Free Marshalls

T.F. Brown's, at 214 E. Main St., Batavia, N.Y.: T.F. Brown's is a great place for a good meal, good friends and to catch up on what's going on in the sports world. When you need to book your next party, think T.F. Brown's. See the ad on the right side of the page for contact information. We have a $20 gift card for $10.

Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern, 107 Evans St., Batavia, N.Y.:  To me, Delavan's is one of those restaurants where you want to eat frequently until you try everything on the menu. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Belladessa's Pizzeria, 9 Jackson St., Batavia, N.Y.: Um, pizza and wings! We have a Family Meal Deal ($25 value), which is a large pizza, 24 wings and a 2 litre soft drink for $12.50.

The Enchanted Florist, 202 E. Main St., Batavia, N.Y.: Brighten up your home or office with flowers! We have a $20 gift certificate for $8.50.

Eclectic Creations, 625 E. Main St., Batavia, N.Y. Do you like fashionable purses? Maybe a unique watch is more your style. Eclectic Creations a variety of items that you won't find in any other local store. This is a $20 gift certificate for $7.50.

A $1 PayPal service fee applies on items more than $10. The fee is 50 cents on items below $10.

Rules: The gift certificate must be used by within 30 days of purchase. It is not valid with other offers and has no cash value. Only one gift certificate per-merchant per-person every six months. Gift certificates cannot be combined with other offers without prior approval of the merchant. Gift certificates bought separately cannot be combined for a single purchase. Individuals buying gift certificates must use their own personal PayPal account for the purchase.

How to Win: Purchase using the PayPal "Buy Now" button below. After the first person to hit the "buy now" button completes the purchase, PayPal will let you know that the item has been sold. Unless other arrangements are made immediately after purchase, the gift certificate will mailed to the winner at his or her PayPal-provided postal address within two or three days of purchase.

T.F. Brown's

sold

Delavan's

sold

Belladessa's

SOLD

The Enchanted Florist

SOLD

Eclectic Creations

sold

Today's poll is posted in conjunction with National Night Out, when communities come together to fight crime. There will be a gathering tonight for National Night Out at Austin Park at 5:30. Organizers also ask that residents leave their front porch lights on to symbolize their support of a crime-free community.

The home of Arnold and Norma Kirch, at 10551 Brookville Road in Alexander, was destroyed by fire this morning.

Smoke detectors woke the couple up at about 4:15 a.m. and they got out of the house safely and quickly.

However, fuel oil stored in the basement in a 150-gallon container spilled into a swamp area and into a tributary. The state's Department of Environmental Conservation has been called to the scene. Tim Yaeger, emergency management coordinator for Genesee County, said booms have been put in place to block the fuel oil from traveling downstream.

A 1,000-gallon fuel oil tank in the backyard also ruptured, but that spill has been contained.

Yaeger said Mr. Kirch said he thought the fire started in the garage and an assistant fire chief who lives nearby confirmed that observation.

The fire spread quickly, Yaeger said, because of the peaked-roof construction of the log cabin home.

Putting the fire out was hampered, Yaeger said, because of power lines in the area coming down and arcing.

The Alexander Fire Department worked the fire with mutual aid from Darien, Stafford, Town of Batavia, Bethany, East Pembroke and Attica. Inmates from the Wyoming Correctional Facility are on scene helping with clean up. No injuries to firefighters were reported.

Photo above sent from the cellphone camera of an unidentified reader.

UPDATE: WBTA spoke with Tim Yaeger at the scene. Listen.

UPDATE: Another reader submitted the photos below:

Care-A-Van would like to thank Cornell Cooperative Extension Office for partnering with us to make a difference. The gals came out his past Saturday for grocery distribution at Batavia Gardens. They did a few home visits with folks while we were there and were able to set up follow up services for those in need

Elder Ron DeMena of the Prayer Room came out on Sunday to do the street church service at Sunset Motel. I just love Elder Ron! He is such a man of the Lord's wisdom. He sure does always look dapper too!

Pastor Charlie Piscitello and his wife Judy led the street church service at the 400 Towers. They have such a love for people and are such a talented couple

Thank you to all for partnering with us. Do you or your organization have a talent or service to share and would like to partner to make a difference? We welcome all of you to join us in making a difference here in the City.  We can be reached at 343-0328.

God Bless and Keep the Light On!

Batavia (22-23) scattered eleven hits across the board, including six for extra bases, to take one game back from Williamsport (26-19).  Starter Scott Schneider matched the offense with his performance, going hitless through five innings.

The Muckdogs scored a run each in the 2nd and 3rd to get things started.  In the 2nd, Niko Vasquez led off with a double, moved to third on a Luis De La Cruz single and then came in to score on a ground out.  In the 3rd, Ryan Jackson tripled and scored on a base hit by Alan Ahmady.

Their big inning came in the 5th as they scored five runs.  Bases became loaded after Devin Goowin and Beau Riportella both walked and Michael Swinson laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt.  Jackson then singled to get one in and Ahmady was walked to plate another.  Matthew Adams followed with another base hit to pick up two RBI.  The last run of the inning came when he hit a RBI double.

Batavia added on two more insurance runs in the 8th on consecutive hits; Cruz singled, Ivan Castro tripled and Kyle Conley doubled.

Schneider (2-0, 0.52) earned himself the win, going five and two-thirds innings with three runs on two hits with eight strikeouts.  Kevin Siegrist earned his first save pitching the 8th and 9th with one run, two hits and two strikeouts.

De La Cruz finished 3-for-4 with a double and RBI.  Jackson went 2-for-5 with a triple, RBI and two runs scored.  Newcomers Swinson and Adams both went 1-for-4, Swinson with a double and Adams with two RBI.  Other newcomer Conley picked up a RBI double in hit one pinch-hit at-bat.

The Muckdogs saw six players leave Batavia today as seven new players came in to town.  Here’s a breakdown of the transactions:

Pitcher Eric Fornataro, first baseman Xavier Scruggs, and outfielders D’Marcus Ingram and Ryde Rodriguez move up to Quad Cities.  Fornataro went 4-0 with a 2.15 ERA in his eight games (five starts) while in Batavia.  Scruggs was batting .234 with seven doubles, 26 RBI and was second in the league with seven homeruns.  Ingram had a .290 batting average and led the league in stolen bases with 18.  Rodriguez rejoins Quad Cities after starting his 2009 season there.  He leaves the Muckdogs with a .311 batting average and league-best 30 RBI.

Both pitcher Dan Richardson and outfielder Jairo Martinez were released by the Cardinals organization.  In his second year as a Muckdog, Richardson leaves with a 6.28 ERA in 11 appearances this season.  Martinez was batting .177 with one homerun in Batavia this year.

New Faces:

Jesse Simpson:

Position: RHP

Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Last Played: Johnson City

Acquired: 2009 Draft, 40^th Round

2009 Stats: 3-0, 1.24 ERA, 28 strikeouts in 29 innings

Justin Smith:

Position: RHP

Hometown: Pleasant Grove, Utah

College: Utah Valley University

Last Played: Johnson City

Acquired: 2009 Draft, 36^th Round

2009 Stats: 1-1, 3.70 ERA, 37 strikeouts in 24.1 innings

Matthew Adams:

Position: Infield

Hometown: Philipsburg, Pennsylvania

College: Slippery Rock University

Last Played: Johnson City

Acquired: 2009 Draft, 23^rd Round

2009 Stats: .378 BA, 6 2Bs, 6 HRs, 24 RBI, .595 OBP

Kyle Conley:

Position: Outfield

Hometown: Richland, Washington

College: Washington

Last Played: Quad Cities

Acquired: 2009 Draft, 7^th Round

2009 Stats: .200 BA, 3 doubles

Jon Edwards:

Position: Outfield

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Last Played: Quad Cities

Acquired: 2006 Draft, 14^th Round

2009 Stats: .191 BA, 9 2Bs, 11 HRs, 32 RBI

Travis Mitchell:

Position: Outfield

Hometown: Creve Couer, Missouri

Last Played: Quad Cities

Acquired: 2006 Draft, 13^th Round

2009 Stats: .254 BA, 8 2Bs, 9SBs

Michael Swinson:

Position: Outfield

Hometown: Douglas, Georgia

Last Played: Johnson City

Acquired: 2008 Draft, 12^th Round

2009 Stats: .343, 3 HRs, 6 SBs

A Le Roy man is accused of growing a small quanity of marijuana on his property in the Village of Le Roy.

David Alan Leach, 47, of 24 Munson Ave., is charged with criminal possession of marijuana and unlawfully growing cannabis.

The initial investigation was conducted by Det. John Condidorio, who followed up on a tip that an individual in the village was growing marijuana.

The Genesee County Local Drug Enforcement Task Force assisted in the investigation and helped obtain and execute a search warrant, along with the deputies from the Sheriff's office and the Batavia Police BET team.

Leach was issued an appearance ticket and ordered to appear Le Roy Town Court on Aug. 10.

A Caledonia woman has been arrested in connection with a household burglary in Le Roy in which jewelry and two handguns were stolen.

The handguns have not been recovered.

The woman is also accused of using the victim's car without permission.

Nicole L. Green, 23, of 3165 Maier Lane, Caledonia, was arrested following a week-long investigation by Det. John Condidorio and Sgt. Michael Hare.

The alleged break-in occurred July 24. The homeowner reported somebody had entered the house during the daytime and stole items from a bedroom.

Green was reportedly known by the victim and became a suspect. The victim had previously loaned a car to Green, which Green subsequently allegedly refused to return.

Green was found in Rochester with the car on Saturday, arrested and turned over to Le Roy Police Dept. She was charged with two counts of burglary in the second degree, three counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree and one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Bail was set at $1,000 for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle charge and $7,500 for the burglary and grand larceny charges.

An ambulance has been dispatched to a two-car accident at Walker and Gillett roads in Alexander.

A victim is reportedly complaining of chest and shoulder pain.

One vehicle is described as having heavy front-end damage.

A border patrol helicopter found two marijuana plots Thursday near Ham and Gorton roads in the Town of Alabama, according to Chief Jerome Brewster of the Sheriff's Office.

Brewster confirmed this morning a reader's tip led to the discovery.

A total of 17 plants were seized from one plot and 56 from another, according to Brewster. The plants were about three-feet tall.

A Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division was on scene, but this was a Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration case.

The reader who tipped us said she saw the helicopter hovering above where there used to be several barns about 11:45 a.m. on Thursday.

Since the government has found it in their infinite wisdom to pay people $4500 for buying a new car with slightly better gas mileage,  I am making a wishlist of other things I want them to give me money for.

Everytime I put gas in my tank, I want 50% back since I am stimulating the oil market.

When I buy groceries, I want 25% of my money returned to me since I am helping shopping cart attendants keep their jobs after the increase in minimum wage.

If I eat a hamburger instead of a hotdog, I would like a $5 rebate since hotdogs are heated twice before consumption.

I have a small garden, where is my farm subsidy?  I am not getting any income from it at all.

I need a new electrical riser for my house, will the federal government help pay for it to keep potential fire damage and the cost associated with it from affecting the local fire department?  Just think how much carbon dioxide is thrown into the air from a house fire and the trucks that respond to them.

If I choose to have an led campfire instead of actually burning wood, do I get some cash?

As a private citizen can I have carbon credits that I can sell to businesses when Cap and Trade is passed or does that only apply to other legal entities such as businesses?

This may all seem ridiculous but so is paying someone $4500 for going out, buying a $200 junker, that leaks oil but has been on the road and insured for the past year and gets 5 MPG, and replacing it with a car that cost $8000 from Korea.

Bryan McWain Hargrave, 22, of 10692 Pavilion Center Road, Pavilion, is charged with petty larceny. Hargrave allegedly stole two 18-packs of beer and a bottle of water from the Wilson's Farms Store in Pavilion on July 12, at 5:17 p.m.  The alleged left was taped on the store's security cameras. On July 31, Hargrave was located and reportedly admitted to the theft.

Aaron F. Branton, 33, of 4022 Main Street Road, Batavia, is charged with DWI. Officer Dan Coffey reportedly observed Branton drive his vehicle over the center line on Main Street Saturday at 2:12 a.m. Upon investigation, Coffey concluded Branton was driving while intoxicated.

Andrew J. Rock, 23, of 144 State St., Apt. #3, Batavia, is charged with harassment. Rock allegedly made threatening phone calls to a woman acquaintance. He was placed in jail on $1,000 bail.

Douglas G. Goodwin, Jr., 18, of 130 Bank St., Batavia, is charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs and unlawful possession of marijuana. He was arrested Thursday at 1:54 p.m..

Eric C. Smith, 21, of 27 Dellinger Ave., Batavia, is charged with menacing and disorderly conduct. Smith is accused of making threats and acting in a threatening manner while at the M&T Express convenience store at 100 W. Main Road, Batavia, Sunday at 3:30 a.m.. Officer Bolles arrested Smith and took him back to police headquarters where he allegedly urinated on the floor, leading to the disorderly conduct charge. Further charges are pending regarding alleged property damage at the M&T Express.

Brad C. Doward, 19, of 16 Harvester Ave., Batavia, is charged with DWI and DWI with a BAC of .08 or greater. Doward was reportedly stopped on Oak Street by officer Camp for allegedly running a red light while turning right. During the traffic stop, officer Camp concluded Doward was allegedly intoxicated.

Larry S. Yoho, 37, of 134 W. Main St, third floor, Batavia, is charged with assault. Yoho allegedly assaulted another person Friday at 1 a.m..

Steven E. Ball, 35, of 11 1/2 Meadowcrest Drive, Batavia, is charged with criminal contempt. Ball allegedly violated an order of protection that barred him from contact with a female acquaintance.

Warren T. Cotton, 32, no permanent address, is charged with petty larceny. Cotton allegedly stole jewelry from Lambert's Jewelers, 375 W. Main St., Batavia, on July 21 at 3 p.m.. Det. Pat Corona investigated the case.

Rob Ronald Rindell, 39, of 8897 Lovers Lane Road, Corfu, is charged with harassment. Rindell allegedly grabbed and pushed another person during a domestic dispute Saturday at 6:45 p.m..

Teresa Marie Ganzhorn, 19, of 4346 Batavia-Elba Townline Road, Batavia, is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle. Ganzhone was allegedly driving a car without the owner's consent.

Jered E. Menichol, 22, of 4560 Walden Ave., Lancaster, is charged with DWI. Deputy Frank G. Bordonaro allegedly came upon Menichol's vehicle parked on the highway, blocking Harlow Road in Darien. Upon further investigation, Bordonaro concluded Menichol had allegedly been driving drunk. He was also charged with driving an uninspected vehicle.

Brian Robert Mruczek, 29, of 9214 Dorman Road, Batavia, is charged with harassment. Mruczek allegedly grabbed and pulled his wife's hair during a domestic dispute. A stay-away order was issued.

UPDATE: We just received arrest reports from the State Police for the first time:

Chrystal S. McCook, 23, of Batavia, and Christine A. Forte, 31, of Le Roy, were charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Forte was stopped for allegedly speeding on Route 63 in Oakfield on Sunday. Forte was issued traffic tickets for several alleged infractions, according to State Police.

Michelle L. Boccaccio, 38, of Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and possession of prescription medication outside of its prescribed container. Boccaccio was allegedly found in possession of three Adderall pills without a prescription or a prescribed container after being stopped for alleged speeding on I-490.  Boccaccio was also allegedly driving on a suspended New York driver's license.

Jeremy H. Boyce, 26, of Lyndonville, is charged with DWI following a traffic stop for allegedly talking on his mobile phone while driving. Boyce is accused of having a BAC of .07 percent. Boyce was stopped at routes 5 and 77.

Video from Sunday's nights game at Batavia's Dwyer Stadium where former BHS and GCC standout Ryan Gugel played for the first time as a pro in his hometown ballpark.  Gugel is a free agent-signee with the Philadelphia Phillie's franchise in Williamsport.

Jim Owen was one of Ryan's teachers. He had this picture taken before last night's game.

Batavia (21-23) couldn’t match up to Williamsport (26-18) on either side of the plate, resulting in a 9-4 loss.

All the Batavia runs came on the long ball.  Xavier Scruggs went deep in the 6th and Alan Ahmady matched him on a 2-0 pitch in the 9th.  After Scruggs walked during the next at-bat, Ryde Rodriguez put another ball over the right field wall to bring the game a little closer at 9-4.

Starter Michael Blazek (3-6, 4.26) lasted just two innings, letting in six runs on eight hits with two strikeouts.  Josh Squatrito followed him, also going two innings with two hits, one walk and two strikeouts.  Daniel Calhoun lasted the longest of the pitching staff, throwing three innings with one run, one hit and five strikeouts.  Tyler Lavigne threw the 8th with two runs, two hits and a walk.  Santo Maertz finished out the game with a strikeout, groundout and pop-out to third.

D’Marcus Ingram stayed hot of late, being the only Muckdog with a multi-hit night.  He finished 2-for-4 with two stolen bases.

A little over a week ago we planned on a road trip to Niles Ohio to see the Muckdogs play.  As things will happen, plans appeared to change and the trip was called off.  That was until Friday afternoon when we decided that we would go.  We left about three hours later than originally planned and not half as prepared as we would have been if plans had stayed as before.  But, that seems to be the nature of the beast, at times.

We already had the directions to Eastwood Field thanks to Yahoo maps.  One confusing direction was how to get to the stadium once we were in Niles. 

'Turn right on Eastwood Mall Blvd."

Turn right on Eastwood Mall Blvd."

Turn left on Eastwood Mall Blvd."

Could the directions be right?  That mystery was explained after we arrived at Eastwood Mall.  The two right turns and the one left took us directly to the parking lot for the stadium ($2.50 to park or $2.50 for walk ins - that is over and above the price of the ticket).

We purchased our tickets online which turned out to be the right thing to do.  We arrived at the end of the ifrst inning only to see a long line still waiting to buy tickets.

The stadium (which is very nice) is one of 350 businesses located at the Eastwood facility.  Once in the stadium you wouldn't believe that you were sitting in the midst of a huge mall complex.  The tree line, visible from the stadium seats, gave the impression that we were sitting in a rural park.

Unfortunately the Muckdogs lost both Friday and Saturday's games. 

On Saturday afternoon we caught the attention of a group of Muckdog players as they were walking back to the stadium from one of the mall buildings.  We hears, "Hey, look!  Muckdogs!", as we drove past the group.  They has spotted the Muckdog cushion in the back window of the car.  We stopped and gave a wave to let them know we were there to see them play.

Sitting in a sea of Scrapper fans was fun.  We even had the people in front of us, on Saturday night, decide to cheer for our guys right along with us.  We did get the oft asked question, "what is a muckdog?" both nights. 

Friday was the perfect day to travel.  The weather was beautiful.  Friday night's fireworks and Saturday's Jimmy Buffett night were nice endings.

Speaking of the stadium.  The electronic scoreboard added a lot to fan participation. Each Scrappers'  picture came up as he came up to bat.  The live pictures of the boys at bat was also nice.

All in all, it was a fun (albeit, hot) weekend.  So glad we went.

Just an additional note:  We ate at a restaurant called Charley's after the game on Friday night.  The menu was typical steak house fare but the spinach and artichoke appetizer was out of this world.  Not the normal frozen, pre-made, throw in the micro-wave and serve dish.  This was fresh spinach, chopped fine and identifiable chunks of artichokes.  The sauce had a hint of garlic, but not overpowering.  While we enjoyed it, I still believe that Larry's has the best chips to go with their dip.

Most viewed posts for July

• Driver of Kid Rock crew busted for alleged DWI
• No injuries reported after tornado touches down in Corfu
• Tornado hits Corfu, power lines down, Route 33 closed
• Batavia Trivia - Pizza Shop in East Town Plaza?, by Bea McManis
• Serious injury accident reported at demolition derby at Genesee County Fair
• Recap: Tornado strikes Corfu, damages homes and businesses, but no injuries reported
• Today's Poll: Do you think Sarah Palin is planning on running for president in 2012?
• More than 100 people arrested at Kid Rock concert at Darien Lake
• Corfu tornado videos submitted to YouTube
• Tornado Picture, Corfu.... July 25, 2009, by Susan Kennelly

Here's our most viewed video for the month:

July was big for The Batavian -- we signed our 48th sponsor (the goal was 50 by the end of July, so we didn't quite make it, but maybe we'll do better in August (our goal for August is 60 total by the end of the month)  -- and more people visited The Batavian more often than ever before.

The final traffic numbers surprised me. Our previous audience record was set in June. It was such a big jump over May that I figured that unless some would-be robbers again miscalculated and picked a bank in Genesee County as an easy mark, July traffic would fall short of June.

Now, you may be thinking, "But Howard, there was that tornado last week -- that had to boost traffic," and it did, but as I watched the numbers come in even before that big news story, I realized July's traffic was getting a lot closer to June's traffic than I anticipated.

Thank you to all the new and established readers who make The Batavian your first choice for local news.

The Batavian is the #1 online news source for Genesee County.

Now, that last sentence surely just made a few people over at our cross-town rival a little red faced. They don't believe it's true. That's fine. They don't have a lot of experience in looking at online audience data. I've been doing it for nearly 15 years, so I'm happy to explain why and how I make that claim.

Our friends over at the Daily News have been running ads at Dwyer Stadium that proclaim thedailynewsonline.com is the area's most visited Web site, and "it's not even close." 

Within the past week, the management over at the Daily started running an online ad that implies the same claim and links to a site called Compete.com to demonstrate how much bigger the Daily's online audience is than The Batavian.

Now the most amazing thing about this ad isn't how disingenuous it is (and it's very misleading), it's that it marks the first time that "the paper of record" has made any sort of official acknowledgment that The Batavian even exists.

The problem with leaning on Compete.com is that no online professional believes any longer that its stats are anything close to accurate. It, along with Alexa, are completely discredited. Compete.com is too easy to game. All you need to do to boost your traffic numbers is get your IT guy to install the Compete toolbar on every employee's machine and wham, your traffic numbers jump.

At this point, I have no interest in Compete as a source of audience information, so I wouldn't even have looked at the site yesterday except that the Daily linked to a page comparing its site traffic to The Batavian's.

Compete.com pegs the total number of people who visited The Batavian at 18,000 (and says it declined over the past month). That's just plain, flat-out wrong. Worse yet, the folks at the Daily know it's wrong.

A newer third-party measurement service is Quantcast. It will measure traffic for any site that signs up for the service, and the traffic data of member sites is publicly available. Both The Batavian and the Daily are measured by Quantcast (which is how I know that the Daily folks have some clue Compete's numbers are way off base -- they also watch the Quantcast numbers). Again, Quantcast under reports our traffic (the latest Quantcast number is 25,000 people visiting the site over the past 30 days, which  is an under count by about 11,000 people), but the site does provide the folks at the Daily some indication that Compete.com isn't a trusted source of audience data.

Here at The Batavian, we pay close attention to our audience numbers as measured by Google Analytics, an industry leader and one that many of my peers in the profession trust (FWIW, I've served on the Newspaper Association of America's Audience Development Committee and have acted as an adviser to a major audience research company). According to GA, more than 36,000 people visited The Batavian in July, and nearly 35,000 visited in June.

Now, I'm not sure if the Daily uses GA. I do know they measure their own traffic with an application called MerlinStats. MerlinStats, which the Daily cited in a print ad it ran recently bragging on its online traffic, is a product of Town News, a company owned by the newspaper conglomerate Lee Enterprises, based in Iowa. Town News provides the Daily with its online content-managment system (the software that powers its Web site).  Town News also provides the Daily with something called a SWAT team, which is a service whereby Town News sends high-pressure sales reps into a local market to sell as many ads as possible in a one- or two-week period. The conflict of interest should be obvious: The same company that provides the Daily with the stats that it uses to sell its ads also makes money off those same ad sales. It must show strong traffic numbers in order to justify the expense of the Daily's content-management system.

All that said, I won't dispute that the Daily, overall, gets more people visiting its site than The Batavian. Quantcast tells me as much, and even as it undercounts The Batavian's traffic, it surely undercount's the Daily's traffic by some equal proportion.

So, when the Daily folks say "the area's most visited Web site," in a sense they're not lying.

Of course, the Daily defines "area" as Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties. Here at The Batavian, we only care about Genesee County. Of course, we draw traffic from the other counties, especially Orleans, but we've never promoted the site outside of Genesee County. The Daily has a promotional vehicle known as a print newspaper that drops into the other two counties on an almost daily basis, so of course their overall traffic is going to be larger than The Batavian's (at least for now).

What really matters from our perspective is Genesee County. 

There is no 100-percent reliable method to compare traffic from just Genesee County between The Batavian and the Daily's site, but Quantcast gives us a clue.

Before I give you the numbers, a little perspective: First, we've already discussed, Quantcast is under reporting traffic for both the Daily and The Batavian. Second, Quantcast can only measure geographic traffic based on where an ISP reports a computer is located. I suspect that a lot of what gets reported as Rochester traffic for The Batavian is really Time-Warner customers living in Batavia, because TW has a tendency to identify many of its accounts as Rochester residents.

Any flaws in Quantcast's data are going to be shared, on a statistical basis, by both The Batavian and the Daily equally. In other words, it's an apples-to-apples comparison.

So, when you look at Quantcast's geographic report and total up the numbers for the two sites, Quantcast reports The Batavian had 8,616 Genesee County visitors (meaning individual computers tracked by a GC-based IP address) versus 8,331 for the dailynewsonline.com. (Report compiled Aug. 2, 2009.) (Note also, that both sites most likely draw a significant portion of its local traffic from people living in GC, but working in Rochester and Buffalo, and only checking either site during the day while at work -- we're confident that The Batavian's local traffic is at least in the 15,000 people range per month, and the Daily's GC traffic is within the same range).

What the Quantcase comparison shows is that it's conceivable to concludeThe Batavian clearly has a larger local audience than the Daily's site, but at worst, it's a statistical dead heat, so for the Daily to claim "it's not even close," or to throw up ads on its own site implying it's the #1 as a local online news source is clearly misleading.

We feel quite justified in claiming the Genesee County #1 online crown, especially when you also factor in the greater frequency of return visitors to The Batavian as compared to the Daily (as measured by Quantcast).

And looking at the Quantcast charts below, the day may soon arrive when, based on the trends, The Batavian's numbers not only beat the Daily's Genesee County numbers, but its three-county coverage as well.

You'll note that one site's trends are tilting down while the other is tilting upward.

The bottom graph shows dramatically that when the Daily proclaims at Dwyer, "the area's most visited Web site, and it's not even close," the "newspaper of record" isn't making a credible, honest statement. The statement "it's not even close" has never been true and now, arguably, the "most visited" claim is also false.

One other thing advertisers should consider when comparing The Batavian's online audience with the Daily's: On The Batavian, your ad can potentially be seen by every site visitor. On the Daily, all ad positions are shared by multiple businesses, so advertisers compete against as many as nine other banner ads for display time. That means potentially up to 90 percent of visitors to the Daily's site will have no chance to see your ad. Or to put it another way, if 45,000 people visited the Daily's site in the past month, only 4,500 had an opportunity to see your ad. But on The Batavian, potentially 36,000 people could have seen it. So on a charge-per-person basis, ads on The Batavian cost much, much less (based on what I've seen of the Daily's rate card and have been told they charge).

I hope this doesn't come across as bashing the Daily.  I respect the people who work there, especially the many fine newsroom people I've met. But when management  spreads misinformation about online traffic -- for the good of The Batavian in this highly competitive situation --I think I need to set the record straight. I just can't let the Daily go around promoting misinformation about my business and remain silent.

For full disclosure, below is what GA reports as The Batavian's key statistics for the past three months.

Glossary: Unique visitor is a single person (really a single computer) visiting once or multiple times in the measured period; Visits is all the times all the people came to the site in the measured people (one person might come once and another seven times and together they would account for eight visits); Page views is the number of times a Web page is downloaded into a Web browser. A single person on a single visit might account for two or three or four page views (the Daily averages many more page views than The Batavian because of significant differences in how content is displayed on the site and critical navigation differences).

May:

• Unique visitors: 25,553
• Visitors: 82,485
• Page views: 199,046

June:

• Unique visitors: 34,800
• Visitors: 114,519
• Page views: 277,524

July:

• Unique visitors: 36,207
• Visitors: 121,394
• Page views: 284,615

Of course, you can do much to help our numbers grow -- e-mail stories to friends, tell all your friends and family about the site, put a bumper sticker on your car, spread the word through your church or civic group newsletter, ask me to speak to your local group, etc.