Roses to all the swimmers, coaches and volunteers who put together the Chapel Hill Summer Swim League championships last weekend at Koury Natatorium, with an extra bouquet to the Exchange Pool/Sunset Creek team -- not just for winning the team championship, but for posting record-setting marks in an even more important arena.

Exchange/Sunset set a new record for the most money ever raised by one team for Swim for Smiles, which benefits the North Carolina Children's Hospital. The team set itself a goal of raising $3,000 -- and wound up raising more than $11,000. And Mia Hoover, a swimmer on the Sunset/Exchange team, set a mark for the most money raised by an individual. She and Drew Greene, another Exchange/Sunset swimmer, were the top girl and boy fundraisers; the two of them raised more than $1,000.

The tournament itself is a remarkable event -- an all-day affair featuring more than 1,200 swimmers, plus organizers, coaches, volunteers, families and fans. To the casual onlooker, it sometimes looks and sounds like complete chaos. But it isn't. Thanks to meet director Susan Wood and the many others who help out, the whole thing is choregraphed and structured. It unfolds according to plan, and it's always a great time.

Good job all the way around.

Roses to Charly Mann, whose Chapel Hill Memories Web site is a treasure trove of local lore, history and images.

Mann was born and bred here, a Chapel Hillian for 45 years. From a young age, he was a packrat; he began collecting newspaper clippings, photographs, documents and all sorts of other local information when he was about 8, and he kept at it as he grew up. Over the years he amassed a remarkable collection of purely local memorabilia -- and even more surprising, he kept it all together as he built a career and eventually moved away.

He lives in Oklahoma now, and he still has his trunks full of Chapel Hilliana. Earlier this year he began organizing his collection, digitizing it and posting portions of it on his new Web site. The site features rare photos, sound clips, documents and much more, along with his own well-written accounts of myriad aspects of life in Chapel Hill, from its founding in the 18th century to today.

It's a fascinating repository of local history. Earlier this year, the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill presented Mann with its annual Preservation Award, and he continues to add new things to the site, including contributions from other current and former residents.

Roses to UNC, which saw reason on the Great Scooter Debate and dialed way down the fees it will charge for the little two-wheeled contraptions.

Until now, scooter riders were free to come and go at will, without any restrictions or requirements imposed by the university. UNC, noticing that scooter use has been surging due to the economy and rising gas prices, came up with a plan to hit scooter users up for hefty fees -- $175 for students and up to $371 for university empoyees.

That decision sparked an uproar among the puttering masses, and last week the administration scaled down the new fees to a much more reasonable across-the-board figure of $24 annually.

The scooter issue isn't behind us yet, though. Next up is a decision about where scooter riders ("scooterers"?) will be allowed to park. Many scooter people like to ride right up to their destination and chain their vehicles to bike racks or just prop them up outside. But campus officials want to discourage scooters on sidewalks and require them to be parked in designated areas.

Stay tuned.