Political strife, recession and pandemic have made 2020 a challenging and miserable year for most of us, but it hasn’t all been bad. Each year the Bethlehem Press reflects on the events in our community, and here are a few of the many stories and images we covered:

JANUARY

• A letter by Southside District Judge Nancy Matos-Gonzalez goes public. It concerns what she termed irreconcilable disparities in policing practices for marijuana charges between Lehigh University and city police. She said the college followed a recent possession ordinance more often than city police, whose officers charge more severely.

• The new ExpressVote XL machines in Northampton County, which cost $2.9 million, are slammed by county elections officials for lack of clarity in use, malfunctions and reporting false results in the Nov. 5 primary. A week later the Pa. Department of State updated elections laws, allowing citizens to vote by mail for the first time in 80 years.

• Terry Houck officially replaces longtime Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, who weeks later was sworn in as a county judge.

• State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, observing high numbers of cases, urges residents to get flu shots. An outbreak of a novel coronavirus called COVID-19 is making news in China.

FEBRUARY

• City Council President Adam Waldron remains at the helm for another term, while Colleen Gallagher becomes the newest member of Freemansburg Borough Council.

• Bethlehem Vocational-Technical School wins the regional Souper Bowl culinary contest at ArtsQuest for the second year running, this time for its maple bacon sweet potato soup.

• Wind Creek Bethlehem casino announces a plan for a $100 million expansion in the form of a new 35,000-foot, 270-room hotel.

• WLVR, the valley’s first full-time news radio station, opens at PBS39 on the Southside, with local programming supplemented by NPR and American Public Media. On air since November, WLVR is a partnership with Lehigh University to share that label; the school’s student radio station is still available at 91.3 on HD radio.

MARCH

• The city reveals plans for an extensive renovation of the Rose Garden, including new walking paths.

• Former Press intern Brandon Taylor shares his experiences living and working in Hong Kong during the pandemic.

• Freemansburg Borough Council is surprised and angered by unexpected swelling of borough hall renovation costs by more than $23,000.

• On March 15, Bethlehem registers its first presumed positive COVID-19 case. By Dec. 29, there will be over 4,000 cases and 90 coronavirus-related deaths.

• States of emergency are called and closures and cancellations cause confusion throughout the valley.

APRIL

• Businesses, including The Bethlehem Press office, have closed and use mitigation efforts for social distancing while accepting the strain of declining income. Some find new options, such as offering take-out menus as more people who can, work from home. Places of worship largely offer services online, while funerals become small private affairs with friends and extended family members unable to participate.

• Lehigh County revisits a longtime plan to develop a regional health commission. Curtis Ding of Forks Township leaves St. Luke’s University Hospital April 15 after 10 days, including several in the ICU; he is the 100th COVID-19 patient successfully recovered and released from Anderson Campus.

MAY

• Two months since its birth, Masks for the Lehigh Valley, created as a simple donation resource by retired nurse Ruth Dennison, had collected and distributed more than 17,000 volunteer-made masks for use by medical professionals. Meanwhile Easton’s Project Hope, a nonprofit that for 30 years donated holiday meals to the needy, had modified its mission to help feed the needy during the pandemic.

• Saucon Valley School Board approves for the first time a Spanish immersion course at the elementary level.

• High school seniors cope with distance learning and the cancellation of many of the activities and events of their final year. Graduation plans vary wildly between schools and districts, and changing health precautions and guidelines by officials make a logistical mess of longstanding traditions.

JUNE

• Protests rise throughout the country in response to the killing of George Floyd, an African American man, by police officers in Minneapolis, Minn. The killing was filmed and shared across social media, stoking anger and fear at police brutality and social inequality. Peaceful demonstrations were held in Bethlehem, and long public discussions about systemic racism and police reform commenced over the following weeks.

• Northampton County is the first in the state to report returns of the presidential primary, and does so seamlessly. County officials praise Voting Registrar Amy Cozze and her staff for quickly turning around a slapdash system.

• As Northampton and Lehigh counties prepare for Green status – that is the least restrictive mitigation position dictated by state government – churches debate and plan reopening and how best to help their parishioners worship safely.

JULY

• With high-grade fireworks legal in Pennsylvania since 2017, this particularly stressful year has witnessed a massive increase in sales and nightly eruptions seemingly for months. Officials can only remind residents of local noise ordnances and ask for understanding and respect for those who need sleep or suffer from PTSD.

• Public conversations about police misconduct and accountability continue, with responses from Mayor Bob Donchez and Police Chief Mark DiLuzio, and a PBS 39-hosted roundtable with Lehigh Valley officials, including Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, Allentown Police Chief Glenn Granitz, Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley President Dr. Hasshan Batts and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Granitz said police officers should see themselves “as guardians, not warriors,” essentially encapsulating the spirit of the contentious phrase “defund the police,” which generally refers to demilitarization and refocusing resources on social work.

• Bethlehem Vo-Tech teacher of 18 years Natalie Green receives a loving retirement party from co-workers, family and friends.

• Shifting COVID-19 guidance forces school districts to create various alternative plans for reopening in a world of pandemic. High school seniors finally get their long-awaited graduation ceremonies, though all are unusual: Some require students to remain seated in the car park, while others are performed mostly online. Liberty and Freedom used the former’s stadium on consecutive days to host surreally-quiet and distanced walks around the track to a limited encounter with administrators on a stage.

AUGUST

• Bethlehem resident Jerry Horn looks back 50 years to his work as a microbiologist helping to develop the measles vaccine. Measles, which killed millions – mostly children – every year through respiratory illness and a dangerous rash, was declared eradicated in 2000.

• Lehigh Valley Charter HS for the Arts Executive Director Diane LaBelle retires after 10 years. Carise Comstock rises from the principal’s chair to replace her.

• The near-miss by Hurricane Isaias left damaged trees and infrastructure across eastern Pa. Floodwaters coalesce and thunder through Monocacy Park, leaving most of the popular recreation area submerged.

• A public rally to decry false rumored accusations of local police departments being shuttered coincides with a lengthy online meeting with Chief DiLuzio and others. He used the five-hour meeting to outline how new legislation for police standards can help, to outline the department’s use of force doctrine, and to answer questions and concerns from callers.

SEPTEMBER

• Mayor Donchez announces the abrupt retirement of Chief DiLuzio after the latter shared a Facebook post disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement and its supporters. DiLuzio held the reins since 2014, and his replacement, announced several weeks later, is Capt. Michelle Kott. She was with the department for 16 years, serving in the Professional Standards Division and Crisis Negotiation Team, and is the department’s first female chief.

• Bethlehem Steel Corp’s massive and historic 350-ton steel press, once used to form battleship hulls, is carefully cut free from its nearly 130-year home behind what is now Wind Creek Bethlehem casino, and relocated to the National Museum of Industrial History.

• National sources ramp up confusion regarding mail-in ballot voting for the upcoming presidential election, but county officials, such as Lehigh County Election Board Chief Clerk Timothy Benyo, explain the process and reinforce confidence in its use. Other election uncertainties are resolved at the state level.

• Christkindlemarkt announces big changes to its layout and ticketing process to adjust to a unique environment.

OCTOBER

• Northampton County provides secure drop boxes for easy in-person early voting at government centers, and clarifies other voting options for residents during a confusing election season.

• St. Anne’s School priests Father Anthony Mongiello and Father Guissepe Esposito perform their annual family pet blessing as locals and their faithful friends pass by in a slow-motion car parade, with everyone (but the pets) masked for safety.

• After more than three decades leading the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, Director Alan Jennings announces he will retire in 2021. He had stewarded the nonprofit into a $30 million operation that assists locals with everything from stocking food banks to issuing microloans to entrepreneurs. Jennings has been battling Parkinson’s Disease for 15 years and says he no longer has the energy to “sprint through the marathon” the position demands.

• Bethlehem Area School District employee Linda Benner is honored by administrators with an award for driving district buses for 40 years.

NOVEMBER

• BASD’s own Marvine ES is named a National Blue Ribbon School.

• The city and NMIH celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bethlehem Steel Corp’s “last cast.” It was Nov. 18, 1995, when the historic and vaunted giant of industry produced its last iron and steel, its furnaces finally falling silent.

• State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine continues, weekly, to ask residents to follow mitigation guidelines of masking, washing hands and social distancing while national efforts spare no expense developing vaccinations. She warns that even when they become available, “they will not be a magical cure,” and the road to recovery will be long.

• The Steelworkers Veterans Memorial, built in 1989, observes its first Veterans Day event at its new location at the NMIH.

• Saucon Valley School Board announces winter sports will still be held, though with many adaptations. Other schools and municipalities also struggle to keep sports alive despite necessary restraints.

• Pennsylvania records record voter registration and turnout for the presidential election.

DECEMBER

• The Christmas City Trellis, filled with chimes purchased by locals each holiday season, is further decorated with about 200 Moravian Star ornaments honoring Lehigh Valley healthcare heroes for their monthslong fight against the worldwide pandemic.

• Fountain Hill Borough Council confirms Norman Blatt its new president, following the resignation of Leo Atkinson over budget disagreements.

• National and international health officials, pressured to produce and tests vaccines as COVID-19 takes its toll, discuss the process with media, explaining what is being released is not a perfect cure, but the best they could produce without two years of proper testing.

• St. Luke’s and Lehigh Valley hospitals each administer their first vaccinations Dec. 17. The first phase of vaccinations planned by federal and state officials is directed to front-line healthcare workers. Mass vaccinations to the public may be months away.