What Were The Most Popular Reads On Andover Patch In 2020?

ANDOVER, MA — Many of us are welcoming the end of 2020, easily one of the worst years of some of our lives. Most of this consternation and pain is center around the coronavirus-COVID-19 pandemic.

But the coronavirus wasn't the only thing in the news this year. At Andover Patch, 2020 was insanely busy. Over 1,000 stories and posts were published by me as well as other Patch reporters and our news partners.

And apparently, residents were eager to read those stories. At this time last year, Andover Patch had about 915 thousand page views. By the end of 2020, Andover will have well over 1.18 million.

So what do you think? What story drew the most page views — coronavirus, or something else?

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In January, Andover Fire got some good news, with the long-awaited arrival of a fire truck that fits under Horn Bridge. The department also made the news when Deputy Chief Kyle Murphy saved a life at a basketball game.

The aftermath of the 2018 gas explosions continued to play out in 2020, with the deadline to file class action claims lasting until the end of January and Columbia Gas being forced to leave the state in a settlement announced in February.

In March, the coronavirus arrived in the region, with the first Andover case reported March 15. The virus and its fallout filled the news all year. Schools closed for the remainder of the year. The town declared a state of emergency and the annual town election and town meeting were postponed. The town's first wave, in the spring, was deadliest, with dozens of deaths at nursing homes. But active case counts have gotten higher in recent weeks.

Another national story that took root in Andover was Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Residents rallied in support of the movement while racist social media posts roiled the high school. Hundreds gathered for the town's first Juneteenth celebration. An Andover Fire Rescue lieutenant was put on leave after he approached a Dominican woman getting mail to "make sure someone wasn't stealing something," although the town later said he was "not racially motivated."

The town began a process to address racism in town, although it quickly encountered a setback when the director of the new Andover DIVERSE office stepped down just a month after the office was created.

The schools were in the news all year. Two weeks into the year, the South School principal took a leave of absence, amid recent labor strife at the school. The staff of the school asked for a new principal weeks later. A month later, the high school principal deleted a tweet and sent a follow-up community email about a Black History Month lunch.

As schools prepared to resume under a hybrid model in the fall, the teachers union undertook a "workplace safety action" and refused to enter buildings for professional development. The state declared the action, which lasted a day, an illegal strike.

Most recently, Superintendent Sheldon Berman announced he would leave at the end of the year. The School Committee picked Claudia Bach, a former superintendent, to serve until a permanent replacement is chosen.

Some stories were one-offs. In January, three men were found beaten and zip-tied near the Lawrence line. The same month, 2015 Andover High alum Gabe Hernandez dying following a Methuen car crash. In March, the Rev. Peter Gori was reinstated as the pastor of St. Augustine Parish following a sex abuse investigation. In May, an Andover man was charged in the nation's first federal coronavirus small business aid fraud case. In September, Raytheon announced it was cutting 15,000 jobs.

Others were annual big stories, like the town meeting and the annual town election, which saw Laura Gregory and Lauren Conoscenti winning the Select Board and School Committee races respectively. In November, state Rep. Tram Nguyen won re-election.

Can you guess what the most-read story of the 2020 is? Leave a note in the comment section below and I will have a post later this week.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.