Wade, who is unemployed, nevertheless wanted to do something nice for Chapel Hill: he wanted to help plant a tree in town.

Wade visited landscape architect Emily Cameron and settled on a Princeton elm, a hybrid variety resistant to the Dutch Elm Disease that wiped out millions of American Elms in the 1930s. Wade had seen some specimens on the university campus that he liked.

His $150 gift took root last week in front of Italian Pizzeria III where co-owner Angelo Marrone, on a smoke break, gave it a hearty thumbs-up. “Love it! Love it!” Angelo exclaimed in that baritone familiar to anyone who’s ever ordered a slice at his restaurant.

The new tree should grow 60 feet and is part of a beautification project being paid for out of bond money.

But you can give to Chapel Hill anytime. “We’ll take any and all donations,” town spokeswoman Catherine Lazorko told us, referring people to the Friends of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation website at http://friendschparksrec.org/

It will be a few years before Wade’s tree is big enough to shade the diners Marrone plans to seat at outdoor tables this spring. But that doesn’t mean the elm won’t be pretty to look at in the meantime.

Love it! Love it! Indeed.

Raspberries to County Commissioner Penny Rich for telling the Chape Hill Town Council how to handle their planning board chairwoman.

Rich, who left the council before her term was up to become a commissioner, recently asked her former colleagues to request Planning Board Chairwoman Del Snow’s resignation.

Snow’s crime? Asking the county commissioners to delay that half-cent sales tax that’s going to help pay for better bus service and a light rail line between Chapel Hill and Durham. The planning board has concerns about the data backing up the plan, as does the council which endorsed it anyway.

Now it is unusual for one government’s adviser to speak to another government, especially without letting the first government know.

But if sharing a minority report of an appointed advisory board is a firing offense, we’ve got more serious problems than a breach of protocol. Rich is no political novice; she and the rest of the commissioners were more than capable of taking Snow’s comments in context and assigning them whatever merit they wanted.

As for Rich’s other concern – that Snow can’t represent the town because she’s suing it over the approval of the Charterwood project off MLK – it seems to us, again, that’s a matter for the Town Council to decide. And at least as Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt told staff writer Tammy Grubb last week, it’s irrelevant.

Reasonable people, it seems, can disagree and still keep talking. If our leaders let them.

Roses from reader Tina Shaban to Chapel Hill’s FRANK Gallery for sponsoring an art supply collection during the month of December.

Led by Luna Lee Ray, curator and member artist, and Torey Mishoe, gallery director, new and gently used art supplies were collected for UNC’s Comprehensive Cancer Support Program’s Expressive Arts Initiative.

FRANK member artists joined community friends and loaded a trunk full of art supplies for healing arts projects at the N.C. Cancer Hospital. ArtHeels, a UNC student volunteer artist organization, Cecilia Minden and Pat’s Art Cart, and HeART Heels, the Patient and Family Resource Center specialty art programs, will use this generous donation to support art programs such as the weekly Friday Family Coffee and Craft or one-one sessions with cancer patients and caregivers.

A special thank you to Stephanie Nussbaum, CCSP massage therapist, for coordinating this event.