Crane Stationery Co. in North Adams needs to do a better job of communicating.

On April 29, the company’s chief operations officer, Dean Daigle, sent an email to employees that most news outlets in the area regarded as a shutdown notice. “Crane Stationery to close North Adams plant,” read the headline in the Berkshire Eagle.

Daigle wrote that the Crane brand, which traces its origins to a paper-making plant launched by Zenas Crane in 1801, was reeling from the bankruptcy of Papyrus, its largest customer, as well as nationwide COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings (wedding invitations account for 40 percent of the company’s business) and Gov. Charlie Baker’s order shutting down non-essential businesses.

“Crane is a 220-year-old iconic brand. However, in the face of these unforeseeable circumstances, we have had to make the very difficult decision to wind down operations at Crane,” Daigle wrote.”

The next day, however, the company said it was not closing. Officials said the business had obtained a $2 million loan from the federal Payment Protection Program and would keep paying its employees until June 19. At that point, however, the company said it would have to adjust to the new market realities and lay off an estimated 85 percent of its 229 employees.

Tom O’Connor, the chairman and CEO of Mohawk Paper, which purchased Crane Stationery in 2015, said the confusion about the company’s shutdown was precipitated by the use of the words “wind down” in Daigle’s email. He said the company’s legal advisers had recommended using those words to convey to employees that substantial layoffs were coming.

Crane subsequently announced that it planned to restart operations on Monday, May 4, after receiving an opinion from the Baker administration that at least a portion of its business was essential. Basically, Crane argued that it supplied stationery to medical, energy, and legal firms that are considered essential so, therefore, Crane is essential as well. For good measure, Crane even mentioned that it does work for Vice President Mike Pence’s wife.

The Baker administration apparently went along with that argument, but advised Crane to focus only on its work for essential businesses. The emails back and forth between the company and Len Evers of the Department of Labor Standards apparently weren’t very specific about how that would be accomplished. “In its communications with employees, Crane appears to take Evers’ finding as a blanket go-ahead,” the Berkshire Eagle reported.

Up until that point, North Adams Mayor Thomas Bernard had been hoping Crane would just survive. But as the company prepared to reopen, he said he began hearing from employees concerned about returning to work. He sent notice to Crane officials informing them the business would not be allowed to reopen until health and building inspectors could verify that workers would be safe and social distancing practiced. He also wanted documentation that only work for essential businesses was being done.

Crane officials provided the mayor with their safety plans, but indicated it would be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between essential and non-essential work. “I want to give them credit, they’ve done a very good job of putting a [safety] plan in place,” Bernard told Northadams.com. “What they have refused to do is indicate how they will focus on essential work.”

The company went ahead and opened on Friday, prompting warnings from town officials that the business was failing to comply with the mayor’s directive. The company opened again on Monday, and this time the town issued a $1,000 fine and threatened to revoke any licenses or permits allowing Crane to operate.

The standoff continued into Tuesday with the mayor and his staff threatening to shut down one of the town’s largest employers.

BRUCE MOHL

BEACON HILL

Gov. Charlie Baker announced a cautious, four-phase approach to reopening the state. (CommonWealth) Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld says Baker’s detail-light plan isn’t really a plan. “Governor ‘Cautious’ might want to give businesses and residents a better idea of what will actually be open, or closed,” he writes, appropriating the name of one of Baker’s four reopening phases. Leading Boston area infectious disease doctors urge a go-slow approach to reopening. (Boston Globe) Could the reopening lead to PPE shortages? (Boston Globe)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Municipalities like North Andover are urging residents to vote remotely in upcoming municipal elections. (Eagle-Tribune)

Civic leaders in Brockton’s immigrant communities worry that stigma surrounding getting the coronavirus and pressure to keep working are fueling the spread of the virus in the city. (O Journal) 

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services has lifted the cap on rates paid to temporary nursing agencies. (WGBH)

ProPublica digs into the staffing shortages and administrative failures at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, which has suffered the largest COVID-19 toll of any veterans home in the country. Joan Vennochi continues to point a finger at the governor’s office, where she says the buck stops. (Boston Globe)

Mercy Medical Center in Springfield resumes some non-emergency surgeries and critical procedures. It is unclear when other hospitals will follow suit. (MassLive)

A family with a loved one with COVID-19 inside the Center for Extended Care in Amherst stages a protest outside. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Hospitals are taking a huge financial hit from the pandemic. (Boston Globe) In late March, CommonWealth spotlighted the particular peril being faced by safety net hospitals and health centers.

Atul Gawande, the prominent Boston surgeon and writer who signed on in 2018 to great fanfare as CEO of the new health care company Haven, is leaving his post but will remain chairman of the joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. (STAT)

COVID-19 patients on Cape Cod take different paths to recovery (Cape Cod Times)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

The White House implements a strict new mask policy — but it doesn’t apply to President Trump. (Washington Post)

Dr. Anthony Fauci will tell a Senate hearing today that the country risks “needless suffering and death” if states reopen too soon. (New York Times)

A proposal backed by Sen. Ed Markey and other Democrats to provide $2,000 monthly checks to Americans won’t pass muster with Republicans, but could be the starting point for congressional negotiations. (Boston Herald)

ELECTIONS

Dan Koh, who narrowly lost to Lori Trahan in the 2018 3rd District congressional primary, decides not to run for Congress again in 2020. (Eagle-Tribune)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Many lower-wage essential workers in western Massachusetts are afraid to go to work, survey finds. (CommonWealth)

Some Massachusetts bus companies are heading to a rally in Washington, DC, to protest being left out of federal relief packages. (MassLive)

These are trying times for nonprofits, many of which count on big spring fundraisers to make their annual budgets. (Boston Globe)

Churches make their case to Gov. Charlie Baker to be allowed to reopen. (Gloucester Daily Times)

Gun shops begin sales after a federal judge orders that they can open, but firearms ranges are still waiting for a judicial decision. (Telegram & Gazette)

Some businesses on Cape Cod that remain open say customers are not abiding by or are unhappy with social distancing and safety protocols. (MassLive) The Cape Cod Times explores the issue further.

The SSTAR health care and substance abuse treatment center in Fall River received financing approval for its new facility, though it does not yet have local approval to deliver  services. (Herald News)

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack floats the idea of slowing down the state’s commuter rail makeover. (CommonWealth)

More people started driving and taking the T last week as state officials search for a way to open up the state’s transportation system in a safe way. (CommonWealth)

T notes: 19 MassDOT workers get pay equity hikes….The MBTA is shutting down most of the Blue Line for two weeks starting next Monday. (CommonWealth)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Central Maine Power won yet another key state approval to build a power line from Canada into Maine bringing with it electricity purchases by Massachusetts ratepayers. (Bangor Daily News)

CASINOS

MGM Springfield warns that it may have to lay off nearly 1,900 employees — almost all of its workforce — at the end of the summer, when their furloughs expire. (MassLive)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins asks the Supreme Judicial Court to throw out 64 guilty pleas. (State House News)

A Weymouth woman was held without bail after she was arraigned on a murder charge Monday in the fatal stabbing of a teen. (Patriot Ledger)