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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.

With dairy prices at a 30-year low, Genesee County dairy farmers may find some relief in new USDA price supports.

The government is essentially agreeing to pay above-market prices for some dairy products as part of the Dairy Product Price Support Program. In this 60-year-old program, the government buys dry milk, butter, and cheese and stores these products until they can be sold on the open market or donated to domestic or international charitable programs.

From a Rep. Chris Lee press release:

The increase, announced this morning by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, will raise the price paid for nonfat dry milk from $0.80 per pound to $0.92 per pound, the price paid for cheddar blocks from $1.13 per pound to $1.31 per pound, and the price of cheddar barrels from $1.10 per pound to $1.28 per pound. Temporarily raising the price of these dairy products increases the price that dairy farmers receive for their milk.

The price increase will be in effect for three months. It is expected to boost dairy revenue by $243 million.

In a press release, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is taking some credit for the USDA action, and she says:

“While this is great for New York’s dairy farmers, this is only a temporary solution to the fundamental problems with the dairy pricing system,” Senator Gillibrand said. “When I met with Secretary Vilsack on Wednesday, I made it clear that the current system is not working for New York dairy farmers – who have been pushed farther and farther toward bankruptcy. During these tough economic times, this increase will bring some much needed relief for our farmers.” 

Here's Lee's statement in support of the increase:

“While this is certainly good news and will provide some relief, Washington still needs to be doing more to support our dairy farmers,” Congressman Lee said. “Dairy is such an important economic driver in Western New York, but when you have milk prices declining rapidly, and the cost of feed and fuel going in the other direction, it makes it impossible for even the most experienced farmers to make ends meet.”  

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is apparently critical of the price-support program, saying in a report "the program has not demonstrated results."

Gillibrand says she has a three-point plan to help dairy farmers:

... including legislation to double the amount of money farmers receive from the MILC program, legislation to index the MILC rate to keep up with inflation, as well as plans to hold Senate hearings on dairy pricing both in Washington, D.C. and New York State.  

Gillibrand is not alone is seeking changes to the MILC program, according to the New York Times:

Several caucus members called for more federal action in the short term, including higher payment rates in the Milk Income Loss Contract subsidy.

"It still comes down to a supply-demand issue. We have a lot of supply, demand has decreased, exports are down, and we have mild temperatures here so cows are happy, at least in the Midwest, producing a lot of milk," said David Zaslavsky, a Chicago analyst with Downes-O'Neill.

Apparently, there's something to the cheese and milk marketing campaign in California: "California cows are happy cows." Temperate weather makes cows happy. And we always thought it was just a funny line. (Though, PETA never thought so.)

Additional information from Lee's PR:

New York is the nation’s third largest dairy state, generating $2.4 billion annually, more than half of the state’s total agricultural receipts. Wyoming is the state’s leading county for dairy production. Unfortunately, the economic crisis has had a significant impact on the dairy industry. For the first five months of 2009, the benchmark federal order average price was $11.59 per hundredweight, down 25 percent from the average of the previous five years. In June 2008, New York dairy farmers were paid $18.81 per hundredweight. Milk prices for June 2009 were expected to drop to around $11.40, while the latest USDA estimated cost of producing milk in New York is $25.27 per hundredweight. As a result, dairy farmers in Livingston County are projected to lose more than $23 million this year. In Wyoming County, dairy farmers are projected to lose $28 million, and in Genesee County, $60 million.

This evening, City of Batavia firefighter Richard Stefaniak was riding high atop the city's ladder truck. He told me the view is great from up there.  He was testing the apparatus after some recent repairs.

If you would like to download a high-res version this photo, click here.

If you're a local baseball fan, you know this already: Ryan Gugel is coming to town.

Sunday and Monday's Muckdogs games against the Williamsport Crosscutters are as eagerly anticipated -- maybe more so -- as last year's playoff and championship games.

And maybe because both events -- championships and BHS grads playing professionally at Dwyer -- are equally rare.

Gugel, a BHS and GCC standout who signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Phlllies earlier this summer, will do something tomorrow night that very few BHS grads have accomplished -- stepped onto the field at Dwyer Stadium wearing the uniform of a professional baseball team.

The last BHS grad to play a professional game in Dwyer is probably Frank Dudley, a pitcher for the Batavia Indians in 1958-59.

Such a long time gap means there are many life-long Batavia baseball fans who never witnessed a championship until last season, and now may get to see for the first time a local kid play professionally at home.

"I've been going to games since 1968, since the dying days of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and I've never seen a Batavia High kid play in this league," said Bill Kauffman. "It's exceedingly rare and what a great accomplishment for Ryan Gugel. He and his family should be really proud."

Before Dudley, there were Dick Raymond (who pitched a complete-game shutout in his Batavia debut), Ray Jamalkowski, Bob Radley and Jerry Maley.

Maley, who still lives in Batavia and regularly attends Muckdogs games, was probably the first BHS grad to play professionally at the hometown ballpark.

"Actually, it was quite a thrill (to play at home as a pro)," Maley said. "I grew up here and hung around the park when I was young and then when I signed, I thought it was quite a thrill."

Maley tried out for the Batavia Clippers in 1949, won a roster spot, but then didn't see much playing time, so he asked for his release. After a tryout with the Olean Oilers, Maley signed with the Clippers' New York-Penn League rival, finishing out the 1949 season with the Oilers and stepping up to the plate 443 times as the Oilers' second baseman in 1950.

Then Maley was drafted into the Army and his professional baseball days were over.

Maley thinks Gugel will feel the same excitement he did six decades ago.

Baseball fans throughout town are talking about Gugel, not because he's tearing up the NYPL (we're all mindful that he's just starting out and playing behind a league-leading hitter -- Sebastia Valle -- so he's only had five plate appearances in his short time with Williamsport), but because he's done something very, very few people who ever play high school or college ball: Become a professional ball player.

"He's playing for all of us," said Bill Dougherty, a local baseball history buff and dedicated Muckdogs fans. "Maybe he doesn't know that, but that's how I look at it, he's playing for all of us guys.

"Here's a guy who's actually going to the next step," Dougherty said. "We all played Little League or Babe Ruth, high school and we'll say at some point semi-pro or amateur, but here's one of us out there in the New York-Penn League, which is just great."

Dougherty figures there are only about a dozen Genesee County ballplayers who ever made it to the pros. The last one to play for Batavia was Mickey Hyde, who came out of Pavilion and played for GCC. He spent his first year of pro ball, 1989 in Batavia. His career carried him through 1993 and Triple AAA Scranton.

The last Batavia-born baseball player -- but he didn't grow up here -- to likely play a professional game in Batavia is Tim Kister, who spent the first of 13 minor league seasons in Auburn. Kister complied a 97-95 record with a 3.98 ERA, but never made it past AAA.

Dudley, the last BHS grad who played a professional game in Batavia, died at age 44 of an apparent heart attack in 1977. Canadian-born Dudley lived in Brockport at the time.

Game time Sunday is 5:05 p.m. and Monday 7:05 p.m.

Don't smoke and drive. Well, at least if you're going to buy more than the legal limit of untaxed cigarettes, and don't get caught speeding when you leave the reservation.

That apparently seems to be the moral of an arrest announced by the Sheriff's Office this afternoon.

Virgil Exis Parker, 29, of 98 Campbell St., upper, Rochester, was stopped on Route 262 in Elba at 6:46 a.m. for allegedly doing 82 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Deputy Meides reportedly spotted 31 cartons of Newport cigarettes and several boxes of cigars in Parker's car. The legal limit is 400 untaxed cigarettes, or about two cartons.

Parker was charged with possession of more than 400 untaxed cigarettes and issued an appearance ticket.

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.

Valle Jewelers, 21 Jackson St., Batavia, N.Y.: Does your ring need a good cleaning, re-sizing or the prongs reset? Your gift certificate from The Batavian can be used for jewelry repair services, too. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

NOTE: Rule changes below related to terms of purchase and mailing.

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. By state law, gift certificates cannot be used for alcohol 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.

Delavan's

sold

Valle Jewelers

sold

The picture above is what the loading dock of the former Latina's Grocery Store was taken Monday. Below is a picture taken this afternoon.

As you can see, there's still some work to be done (weeds growing from the roof, graffiti clean up), but it's a big improvement.

Work crews at the direction of the city clean up the Latina's lot (which had weeds encircling the building) on Wednesday. City officials told WBTA that the property owner was fined $250 under the new weed abatement ordinance, plus the cost of clean up. Also cited and cleaned up was Della Penna Paving (picture from Monday below).

No word on how much the property owners will be billed for the clean up work.

It may take a lot of volunteers to clean up Darien and Corfu following last Saturday's category 1 tornado.

Bill Clark, regional director for New York's Emergency Management Office, didn't make that prediction, but if you add up what he told Corfu and Darien officials yesterday afternoon, that's what it sounds like.

In order to trigger state or federal assistance, there needs to be 25 uninsured homes in the disaster area, and in Darien and Corfu there weren't much more than 25 homes total that were damaged.  It's likely most of them were insured.  For SBA assistance to kick in, there needs to be five businesses damaged. There may be only three businesses damaged in the tornado. It's unclear if farms can be included in that count, or if they are a USDA issue.

Corfu Mayor Todd Skeet said volunteer efforts are under way and are ongoing, but doesn't think that will be enough. In the end, he's looking for his state to step up and provide assistance.

Out at Petals and Plants, the first stop for Clark and his survey group, Jim Grant, father of the business owner, said if his son doesn't get assistance to haul way the greenhouse debris and rebuild the greenhouses, the nursery and flower shop will not reopen. The greenhouses were not insured.

But Clark and his team did survey the entire tornado zone yesterday and will file a report with the governor's office. Clark stressed repeatedly the importance of gathering thorough and complete data as the best way to make a case for assistance. It will take some time before we know the results of the findings.

Carlos Manuel Cruz, 20, of 120 Crowley St. Upper, Buffalo, is charged with harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. Cruz allegedly bit his girlfriend's father in his left breast during a fight. Cruz was allegedly holding his 3-month-old son at the time.

Joshua P. Moore, 18, of Route 31 in Holley, is charged with petty larceny. Moore and two accomplices allegedly stole beer from Tops on Tuesday. Store cameras were used to help identify Moore. The two other suspects have not been apprehended yet. Moore was also allegedly caught Wednesday night trying to steal beer from the Southside Deli on Ellicott Street.

Alan Bedenko notes that New York blew it in 1997 -- under terms of the state constitution, there should have been a vote to determine whether a constitutional convention should be convened.

But it's not too late. No year is too late. The Legislature can put the question on the ballot any year, like, say, this November.  That's Bedenko's suggestion.

So what reforms would you like see included in a new state constitution?

South Main Country Gifts, 3356 Main St. Road, Batavia, N.Y.: Always a great place for gifts, South Main just brought in a bunch of new merchandise from the region. We have a $20 gift certificate for $9.

Present Tense Books and Gifts, 101 Washington Ave.:  Whether your taste runs to local authors, the finest in fiction or nonfiction or you're looking for a unique and special gift, this charming store in a cozy Victorian house on the edge of downtown is a great place to stop and shop. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles, 8 Center St., Batavia, N.Y.: Feel like a kid in a toy store again, or treat your kids to the greatest toy store they will ever see. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

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.

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. People who have won a certificate in the past 30 days are not eligible to win a certificate from the same business as before. 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. By state law, gift certificates cannot be used for alcohol 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. The winner has up to 48 hours to make arrangements to pick up the gift certificate at The Batavian office in Downtown Batavia, or, unless other arrangements are made, the gift certificate will be mailed to the address associated with the PayPal account.

Present Tense

SOLD

Adam Miller

SOLD

T.F. Brown's

SOLD

South Main

SOLD

The volunteer fire departments of Genesee County meet and train on Monday nights (I'm not sure if the City's career crew is on the same time table).  This Monday, I drove out to the Genesee County Fire Training Center to watch the Elba Volunteer Fire Department practice putting out car fires (it took me some time in between everything else going on to get the video edited and processed and posted to YouTube).

This video is the first in what I hope will be a series highlighting the Monday night training exercises of Genesee County's firefighters.  Whenever I have a free Monday, which mostly means no Batavia City Council meeting or other town board meeting, I'll pick a training session to attend and shoot a video documenting the training.  

The members of the Elba Volunteer Fire Department at training Monday: Kenny Ball, Rick Dorman, Ryan Hart, Mike Heale, Joe Kartychak, John Mudrzynski, "Rat" Reinhardt, Cale Rice, Brian Russell, Alex Shuknecht, Dave Webster, Mark Wiatrowski, Bill Zipfel, Cait Zipfel.

Rather than put consolidation to a vote of the people in November, the Consolidation Study Committee is asking governing bodies for both town and city to establish a joint charter commission to draw up a document that would outline what a merged municipality would look like.

Under the new proposal, there wouldn't be a public vote on consolidation until November 2011. Committee members said this would allow both city and town residents to be fully informed about consolidation before voting.

When the committee made its initial report on consolidation two months ago, the plan was to have a yes-or-no vote in both the city and the town in November of this year. If consolidation was approved in both jurisdictions, then a charter commission would be formed.

Now Town Supervisor Greg Post said he prefers a clean-slate approach to create a whole new governing agency for the Batavia community.

"We have an opportunity to sit down with a clean piece of paper and say what works and doesn't work for Batavia," Post said. "We've been given an opportunity that is priceless. People talk about what doesn't work with government, but we have an opportunity to sit down and create one that does work."

But Batavia City Councilman Bill Cox sounded a more cautious, "not so fast" alert during Wednesday night's meeting at the Batavia Town Hall. He's concerned that the consolidation study so far hasn't produced enough actual numbers of hard-cost savings for taxpayers. Plus, he distrusts how much the study committee seems to be leaning on $820,000 a year in grants from Albany for a consolidated government. 

Cox is concerned that the biggest city expense -- police and fire personnel -- hasn't been addressed by the study committee.

"Those topic are taboo from being part of the discussion and when you eliminate those two cost centers from the discussion, then the opportunity for cost savings is greatly reduced," Cox said.

City Manager Jason Molino, who served on the study committee, took issue with what he saw as Cox's characterization that the committee had not done its work by omitting police and fire savings in its report. 

Molino said the committee made a decision not to delve into that topic because it's really a policy decision that a new governing body will need to address. It's a question that goes beyond mere cost savings: what level of service will residents in the new government want?

The study committee recommends that the consolidated Batavia (and we're assuming it will still be "Batavia") should be a city.  As a city, there are advantages both in cost savings, grants from the state and more sales tax authority.

As for how the new city would govern, the committee is recommending an at-large elected mayor and six council wards. There would be one ward for the current town, one for the current city with the remaining four wards split between the town and the city.

That is, if the proposed charter commission likes those recommendations. The eight-member commission (four town residents and four city residents) could decide to go in a completely different direction.

Here's the recommended timetable for consolidation:

August 2009: City and town governing bodies pass a local law to create a joint charter commission. This would require a public hearing. Together, the city and town would apply for a grant to pay for the commission's legal work.

September 2009: Town and city begin interviewing potential charter committee members.

October 2009: Commission members selected.

November 2009: Commission members appointed and begin work.

December 2010: Commission completes work on a new charter.

Spring 2011: City and town governing bodies accept charter and ask state Legislature to place charter on the ballot at the general election in 2011.

Late Summer / Fall 2011: City and town hold public hearings on proposed charter.

November 2011: City and town hold separate votes. The charter must pass in both jurisdictions.

2012: If passed, 2012 is a transition year, preparing for the merger.

November 2012: Election of a mayor and ward representatives (if this form of government is recommended by charter commission).

Jan. 1, 2013: New merged municipality is born.

UPDATE: Download PDF of Consolidation Press Release.

A load of O'Lacy's bar towels were a total loss in a dryer fire this morning at the home of Kent Ewell, owner of the popular pub and restaurant on School Street in Batavia.

The quick response of Town of Batavia volunteer fire fighters is being credited with keeping the fire contained to the dryer with minimal smoke and water damage to the residence at 8215 Batavia-Stafford Townline Road.

The home is on the Stafford side of the border, but Batavia was actually dispatched first. Batavia also has a closer station, so Assistant Chief Dan Coffey (also a Batavia police officer) was first on scene.

He rapidly determined from Ewell the probable location of the fire. Crews swiftly connected to a nearby hydrant and ran a line through the front door, downstairs to the laundry room and extinguished the fire just as it began to lap the wall.

"It was a very quick knock down and a quick response that saved this house today," Coffey said.

Chuck Hammon, 3rd assistant chief for Stafford, said the cause of the fire was likely a worn belt on the dryer.

It's a common problem, he said.

"I don't know why they make some of these dryers with the belt next to the exhaust," Hammon said. The exhaust heat, he said, can cause the belts to wear faster and become a fire hazard.

Hammon also credited Batavia volunteer firefighters for its speedy response in preventing the fire from spreading.

Ewell said he usually starts his work day early and then comes home mid-morning, but the times vary day-to-day. He said he felt fortunate to come home when he did and make the 9-1-1 call. The house was full of smoke and the fire detectors were sounding when he opened his door, he said.

Top Picture: Hammon points to belt area of dryer, explaining how he believed the fire started. Bottom: The scene at Ewell's home after the fire was extinguished.

Audio:

• Kent Ewell
• Dan Coffey

Initial Report:

A house at 8215 Batavia-Stafford Townline Road is reportedly full of smoke. Firefighters from Stafford and Town of Batavia are responding.

First responder has confirmed it is a house fire.

(not posting map because Google map is not marking the address accurately)

UPDATE: On scene, with no smoke or fire visible. Byron and Bergen fire crews have been asked to stand down, only Stafford and the Town of Batavia fire crews remaining now.

Congressional members with a shared interest in the fate of dairy farmers have revived a caucus to work together on those concerns, and Rep. Chris Lee has been selected as a co-chair of the committee.

Other representatives from New York are Democrats Paul Tonko and Louise Slaughter.

Caucuses are officially sanctioned groups of lawmakers who join together to promote a common cause. Here's a complete list of such groups.

With dairy prices at historical lows, and production costs remaining high, dairy farmers have been looking to Washington for assistance and support.

The new caucus gives congressional members with a shared interest in dairy farming a means to study dairy farming issues and come up with recommendations that could conceivably lead to legislation or other assistance.

If money leads to better education, New York's students should be the best in the land.

New York spends more on education per-pupil than any other state in the nation, and also leads the way in teacher salaries per-pupil and tax revenue per $1,000 of personal income, according to a press release from the Business Council of New York State.

• New York spends $15,981 per student, 65 percent above the national average of $9,666.
• The amount of spending per per-pupil on teacher salaries is #1 at $7,229, which is 81 percent above the national average.
• Employee benefits per-pupil also leads the nation at $2,980.
• Per-pupil revenue from local sources was $8,875, which is 75 percent above the national average.
• New York spent $37.16 on schools for every $1,000 of personal income in the 2006-2007 school year, or 42 percent above the national average.
• The state collected more than $5,100 per pupil in property taxes that year -- the fifth highest per-pupil property tax collection in the nation and 60 percent above the national average.

The press release cites the Public Policy Institute of New York State as the source of the data.

Allen S. Dockstader, 26, 380 Council House Road, Basom, is charged with felony DWI among other charges following an accident at 2:24 a.m. in which Dockstader was allegedly involved in a two-car hit-and-run accident on Gilmore Road in Pembroke. The driver who left the scene was identified as Dockstader, according to a Sheriff's Office report, and Deputy Jason E. Saile reportedly found Dockstader at his home following the accident in an alleged intoxicated state. Additional charges: DWI with a BAC of .08 or greater, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a property-damage accident, unregistered motor vehicle, operating without insurance, switched license plate and unsafe backing.

Michael E. George, 45, of 2383 Lewiston Road, Oakfield, is charged with DWI and leaving the scene of an accident. George allegedly struck a disabled vehicle that was partially in the roadway on Bloomingdale Road in Alabama. George was allegedly found at his home by Deputy Howard Carlson following the accident. Additional charges: Driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, speed unreasonable/prudent, no left side mirror and refusal to take breath test. The incident allegedly took place at 9:28 p.m.