2020 started off like most other years: A polar plunge, a dispute over taxes in town, and talk of a Starbucks drive-through opening on County Road.

But in early March, everything changed.

Fears of the coronavirus led government officials to impose stay-at-home orders, close playgrounds, and limit gatherings. Markets ran out of toilet paper. Students left school to learn from home. Restaurants and other local businesses scrambled to stay alive. And masks became the rule, not the exception.

Summer signaled a slight shift, as residents embraced the outdoors as they never have before — the town beach grew so busy that officials closed it to non-residents.

And fall arrived with heightened anxiety over a return to school.

In the midst of the pandemic, residents also held rallies, some hoisting signs stating “Black Lives Matter,” others pledging to “Support Our Police” and some asking to “Keep Politics off the Pole.”

And just as it seemed we could take no more, the elections arrived.