Roses to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, which last week opened a satellite computer lab at Carolina Apartments in Carrboro.

The lab provides computers, Internet access and a special software program called Rosetta Stone, which is designed to help ESL students build their knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary.

The schools have partnered with Durham-based apartment owners General Services Corp., which provides the space, and the Kramden Institute, a nonprofit that has provided the computers at no cost.

The idea is to give children who may not have computers or Internet access at home a way to learn, study online and keep their skills sharp during the summer. Volunteer monitors will make sure the computers are being used for valid purposes.

The computer lab at Carolina Apartments is a pilot project. If it goes well, the school district plans to open additional labs in other GSC apartment complexes.

The program has a lot of potential. Children without computer or Internet access are at a profound disadvantage in a world in which digital tools are increasingly essential to education. The residential computer lab program helps bridge that digital divide.

Roses to the town of Carrboro and Communities in Schools of Orange County for their collaboration on a project that invited summer camp kids to help build and install solar lighting technology at the Town Commons.

Students in the Communities in Schools' "Green Awakening Math and Science" summer camp participated in the project last week. Professionals from Solar Tech South, a Chapel Hill-based solar energy company, worked with the campers to teach them how to put solar panels together and erect them at the commons.

Staff and officials involved in the project hope it leads to more such collaborations; they are talking about establishing a series of green apprentice training programs.

Last week's project provided energy efficient power for the Town Commons. Even better, though, it taught young people the importance of green technologies and gave them direct hands-on experience in implementing them. Who knows? The simple one-day event might nudge one or two of them toward a green career.

Raspberries to Peak Fitness, which has botched the closing of its gyms in the Triangle, leaving a lot of people frustrated and angry.

The Charlotte-based chain of fitness clubs announced recently that it was in the process of closing its facilities in the Triangle. Peak had two locations in Chapel Hill and others in Durham, Raleigh, Cary and other area towns.

Peak has closed the Elliott Road facility in Chapel Hill, along with two clubs in Raleigh, one in Cary and others in the region. The Durham location is still open, apparently, but perhaps not for long.

The closings caught many members by surprise, including those who signed up within the past few months and paid for a year's contract, only to find their gym now shuttered.

Not surprisingly, some of those folks want their money back. Peak has offered to transfer memberships to another fitness club chain, but some members have had difficulty getting those transfers honored.

Peak's communications have been inconsistent and inadequate. The company shouldn't have offered long-term contracts when the company had to know it was facing the closure of its gyms, and members who signed up for a year's worth of access should be refunded the balance of their fees.