Here’s a look at the top local stories of 2015 chosen by Sun Journal staff.

Lewiston mayor’s race attracts big money

In Lewiston, the race for mayor felt a bit lopsided, at least where dollars were concerned.

At the end of November, just a week before the runoff election that would decide the matter, the final tallies were in. With a late windfall of $4,245, Mayor Robert Macdonald’s total came in at $5,807 in contributions for his campaign. Not bad, but it still looked puny next to the war chest of challenger Ben Chin.

Strongly supported by the Maine People’s Alliance, Chin’s financial numbers were staggering by Maine mayoral election standards. Chin kicked off his campaign in March, and with the help of the MPA managed to bring in more than $90,000 for his campaign. He spent all but $28,161 by the time the campaign was over.

And when it was over, the race went to the incumbent. Macdonald received 4,398 votes to Chin’s 3,826.

Before the election was whittled down to just two candidates, there had been a pool of five. Spending for the campaign ranged from massive to middling to minuscule. Candidate Steve Morgan had raised $9,170 while Luke Jensen campaigned with $375 and Charles Soule with $221.

As foretold, Lewiston celebrates first state soccer title

For a full year, the Lewiston High School boys soccer team brooded about losing the championship in 2014. It hurt a lot, the players said, and all the platitudes and rationalizations didn’t ease the sting.

In the wake of that loss, coach Mike McGraw made his team a promise: They would not only return to the state championship in 2015, they would take the title.

On Nov. 7, McGraw’s prophecy was fulfilled, and it turned out the LHS team needed only one goal to do it. Maulid Abdow’s flip throw bounced in off a Scarborough defender late in the second half for the only goal in a tightly contested game as Lewiston earned its first state soccer championship, a 1-0 triumph over Scarborough at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

Jubilation followed, along with gratitude for McGraw’s faith.

“We did this for Coach McGraw, for Lewiston, for our school, for our community,” senior forward Abdi Shariff said. “We’re so happy to finally get it.”

Let the healing begin: Chinese medical complex planned in Auburn

Some cities get a Walgreens, some get a Bugaboo Creek. In Auburn, a new business coming to the city is not one many would have predicted.

Miracle Enterprises, a Maine company created in June and backed by investors from China, announced plans over the summer to bring in a four-star medical tourism complex to Auburn.

Investors from the Guo Tou Sheng Tong Investment Co. and Beijing HongYu Investments and Developments Co. purchased the 67 Minot Ave. Lunn and Sweet building along with the neighboring 81 Minot Ave. lot. In September, the group bought the former police station at 1 Minot Ave. for a half-million dollars.

In August, the group announced its plans to build a medical tourism destination, and that it had agreements with Central Maine Medical Center and a clearinghouse that connects Chinese patients with doctors.

By the end of 2016, wealthy Chinese citizens are expected to visit the $40 million complex to receive medical treatment unavailable in China, and to recuperate in the former Minot Avenue shoe factory converted into luxury residences. Investors told an Auburn crowd in late July they expect 5,000 wealthy Chinese citizens to stay at the new facility in its first year.

Overdosed: A bad year for illicit drug use

Just days before Christmas, 15 people, including a drug counselor from Scarborough, were arrested during a police sweep through Oxford County. Drug investigators said the busts shut down a major heroin operation that had been moving the drug into the county.

The drug bust made headlines and it was a fitting way to wrap up a year that had been plagued with drug arrests, drug overdoses and drug operations all over the place. In mid-December, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills reported that the number of overdose deaths attributed to heroin and other opioids was averaging about five a week across the state.

Heroin use exploded over the past two years as many people addicted to prescription painkillers turned to the cheaper and more accessible way to get their fix. While cities like Lewiston battled its share of heroin addiction and associated problems in 2015, towns such as Bethel, Rumford, Paris and Mechanic Falls were likewise vexed throughout the year.

Heroin, said Paris acting Police Chief Jeffrey Lange in September, “really blew up within the last year. It’s been increasing steadily, especially with overdoses and deaths that are attributed to the drug.”

Lange was one of many local, state and federal police officials who helped launch the Western Maine Addiction Task Force in September to help tackle the issue. Similar efforts seemed to be going on everywhere, from the smallest towns to the state capitol.

In Auburn, a rash of heroin overdoses, culminating in five in one week, prompted the city to get more information out to the public about treatment and enforcement options.

Later in the year, Gov. Paul LePage said he planned to call on the National Guard to help fight drug trafficking in Maine, while U.S. Sen. Angus King called on military leaders to crack down on the flow of illegal heroin from Latin America.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing of methamphetamine was also on the rise, with drug agents responding to meth-related incidents 54 times before Christmas Eve, an all-time high for the state. Maine’s meth lab activity was five times higher in 2015 than that of other New England states, state drug officials said.

Cold case revisited in Canton

Nearly 30 years after 17-year-old Kimberly Moreau went missing, the case still haunts the people familiar with her disappearance.

In early August, state police spent four days searching a patch of Canton land and nearby woods with ground-penetrating radar, cadaver dogs and digging equipment. Medical examiners and University of Maine geology professors were part of the effort.

The search was conducted on the property of Brian Enman, a man investigators say had been with Moreau the night she vanished. For Moreau’s family, the renewed police effort provided momentary hope that the case would be resolved once and for all.

Police say Moreau, of Jay, disappeared on May 10, 1986, after canceling plans to go the junior prom with her boyfriend and instead went out with a female friend to meet up with Enman and another 25-year-old acquaintance. She was last seen getting into a car with at least one of the men that night.

Moreau has not been seen since and nobody has been charged in her disappearance. The search in Canton drew plenty of interest, from the media and others, but it did not yield any signs of the missing woman. On Aug. 9, after four days of examining Enman’s property, police announced that the search would be suspended.

As for Enman, he told reporters that state police were “grasping at straws” by searching his property. He has denied any role in Moreau’s disappearance.

Lewiston father held in 2014 infant death

Throughout the year, Danny Adams denied killing his infant son.

Adams, now 25, was accused in December 2014 in the death of his 14-month-old son, Zade. In January he was arrested, in February he was indicted, and a week later Adams pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and manslaughter.

Police said Adams, of 77 Rideout Ave., Lewiston, told them he was frustrated that his son wouldn’t stop crying on the morning of Dec. 14, so he put a pacifier in his son’s mouth and forced him to stay on his stomach by pressing on his back. An autopsy determined the cause of death was asphyxiation.

In August, a judge set bail, although Adams remained jailed. In court hearings, he has denied killing his son, although, according to police, Adams has admitted to a number of parenting mistakes, including drug use.

Adams told police during an interview that he had injected heroin the night before Zade’s death at a friend’s house, and that he then smoked pot with the child’s mother when he got home. He said he had bruised Zade’s ears when he squeezed them with his thumb and fingers as he held the head of the baby, who continued to cry, according to court papers.

After doctors detected a rib fracture during the autopsy, Adams told police he had become frustrated by Zade’s crying about four weeks earlier and had squeezed the baby with force.

The case is expected to go to trial later this year.

Woes mount for mills, workers: ‘It’s really sad’

In January, Catalyst Paper Holdings bought Rumford Paper Co. and a second NewPage mill in Biron, Wis., for $62.4 million in cash, with the hopes of increasing production capacity by 65 percent to 995,000 tons per year. The sale offered a glimmer of optimism, but as the year progressed, the news at area mills was seldom good.

In May, Catalyst announced that a temporary shutdown of the No. 12 paper machine there would be extended to August, resulting in the layoff of approximately 50 workers. In September, the mill announced that No. 12 would remain idle indefinitely.

Meanwhile, in Jay, Verso Corp. announced in August that it will permanently eliminate 300 jobs and shut down a paper machine and a pulp dryer. Corporate officials cited a number of reasons for the shutdown and layoffs, including market decline, high taxes and energy costs. The news just kept getting more dire.

Shares of Verso Corp.’s stock dropped as low as 7 cents in late September and analysts said they suspect it’s only a matter of time before the company files for bankruptcy.

Chip Dillon, a partner at Vertical Research Partners in New York and a longtime paper and packaging industry analyst, grimly described the area’s floundering mill industry.

“Verso and NewPage were two drunks trying to hold themselves up (when Verso bought NewPage in January),” Dillon said. “They thought they had the right kind of leverage, but obviously the market has collapsed faster than they thought it would. There’s no equity value left, is what the market is saying; and of course that’s probably going to be proven when they miss a debt payment and they have to go through the whole song and dance again of bankruptcy, and then continue to shrink. It’s really sad.”

Technology appeared to be at least part of the mill woes, according to analysts.

“I think the bigger issue for a Jay mill worker is simply how fast does the technology change create less and less demand for the products the Jay mill makes,” Dillon said, “and when does that mill and that community and others take action to greet the new day.”

In October, a state Rapid Response Team set up meetings with Verso Corp. to help Androscoggin Mill workers who had begun losing their jobs.

It’s all downhill from here

This winter, skiers had more to worry about than just a lack of snow.

In 2014, the 56-year-old Lost Valley resort came close to not opening after owners went public with financial issues. The community rallied and it did open, but concerns lingered into the following year. In early October, Lost Valley owners reported that they would indeed open for the 2015 season. A few weeks later, there was more eye-widening news: Lost Valley had been sold to Robert Scott Shanaman, a Wilton, N.H.-based ski tramway inspector.

Shanaman didn’t keep skiers guessing for long. The day after Christmas at Lost Valley, lift chairs were being repaired, belts on the grooming machine tweaked, tower pads were installed and even the septic system was getting an update. Shanaman said he planned to fire up the 51 snow guns immediately and open the trails just a few days later. The ski area opened Dec. 31.

Whew, right? Now if the situation at Saddleback, in Rangeley, would become more clear.

Saddleback management announced in July that the resort, which has been for sale for several years, needed $3 million to finance a new, faster ski lift in order to open for the next season.

Shortly after saying in October it was in “serious negotiations with a buyer,” the resort went quiet, prompting much hand-wringing among season-pass holders, area businesses, condo owners and town officials. In the absence of facts, Rangeley became plagued by rumor and speculation.

On Dec. 18, Saddleback posted an update on its Facebook page: “Our prospective new owner and the Berry Family feel confident that we will complete a transaction — opening by late January.”

Hundreds of skiers weighed in with congratulations and glee for a new ski season. However, since that update, no news of a sale has been posted.

E. coli cases remain a mystery

In October, a pair of local E. coli cases in children horrified the population and cast suspicions on a popular fair.

Colton Guay, 20 months old, of Poland died at Maine Medical Center in Portland in early October after contracting hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a severe E. coli complication. Another boy, 17-month-old Myles Herschaft of Auburn, also contracted HUS. He recovered.

The families of the boys didn’t know each other, it was revealed at the time. The parents only met while doctors treated their sons at the same Portland hospital.

The only known link between the boys: both had attended the Oxford County Fair, leading some to believe the boys may have contracted HUS after being exposed to E. coli bacteria while petting farm animals there.

The Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention and the state veterinarian at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry began an investigation into the possible link to the fair in late September. Common food items were also investigated.

In December, CDC officials announced they could not connect the illnesses of two children to the Oxford County Fair or to anything else. The CDC closed its investigation and labeled the cause of the E. coli infection undetermined.

Paris police chief apologizes, endures, departs

It would appear that the saga of former Paris Police Chief Michael Madden has come to a close. At least the Maine chapter.

In November 2014, he was charged with driving while intoxicated after he was stopped by police in Naples after weaving back and forth across the centerline.

In April, Madden pleaded guilty to the charge and described his behavior as a “horrible act of bad judgment.” He was fined $500 and his license was suspended for 150 days. He was suspended from his job without pay for 30 days, a period some townspeople thought was far too lenient.

Two weeks after he publicly and tearfully apologized to the town for his drunken-driving arrest and conviction, Madden was appointed to serve as interim town manager while the manager was on maternity leave.

Then, in September, he announced that he was leaving the chief’s position, not because of the ordeal that followed the OUI arrest but mainly because his 88-year-old mother was sick.

“Family comes first,” Madden told reporters, before moving back to Connecticut. “I need to go take care of business.”

Back in the Constitution State, Madden said he would be focusing on his business, The Madden Group Artist Management, which promotes, books and manages contracts for the Marshall Tucker Band and four Celtic rock groups throughout New England.