2020 ushered in countless difficulties for the many small businesses that populate Yellow Springs. Restaurants endured challenges of meeting public health standards amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and shops had to cope with a decline in sales.

2020 was a challenging year for most academic institutions, not least of all Yellow Springs’ own Antioch College and Antioch University Midwest.

The holidays are festive, if lower-key, at Friends Care Community this year. Visitation has been restricted at the facility since March.

“Completing the harvest” of two years of poetry columns in the News, a final column of thanks to poets and readers. Eighteen local and regional poets have appeared in this space.

Ohio saw a massive bump in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, Dec. 8. That day, 25,721 new cases were reported, bringing the statewide case total well over the half-million mark since the pandemic’s start.

After reporting just one COVID-19 infection during the fall quarter, Antioch College now has seven active cases on campus. Six students and one staff member tested positive for the virus over several days late last week, according to college spokesperson Christine Reedy.

Three local businesses are closing for the winter during what their owners expect to be a grim few months of the pandemic. Whether other seasonal closures will follow in Yellow Springs remains to be seen.

The season’s first snowfall came ahead of Tecumseh Land Trust’s annual Winter Solstice Poetry Reading, to be held this year on Friday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m., via Zoom.

While the village has lagged surrounding communities in its rate and spread of COVID-19, local organizations and businesses are beginning to see — and in some instances publicly announce — more positive cases here.

Ohio is about 10 days away from receiving its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines. Frontline health care workers, emergency medical personnel and residents and staff at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other congregate living settings will be the first recipients of the vaccine.