5 years ago, 2013
Faced with a projected enrollment of 800 fewer students in the 2013-2014 school year, the Clay County School Board board voted 5-0 to accept a proposal to cut 77 positions district wide.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with Walgreens to host a Drug Take Back Event at their store on U.S. Highway 17 on Fleming Island in which one man drove from Georgia to dispose of expired prescription medication.

Daniel Linsinbigler Sr. of Fort Pierce, Florida questioned whether his son, Daniel Linsinbigler Jr., received the proper medical treatment hours before he died inside the Clay County Jail knowing his son had experienced hallucinations and had other mental health issues.

10 years ago, 2008
A traffic stop led Clay County Sheriff’s Office detectives to an apartment in Jacksonville Beach where they found evidence that 27-year-old David Gonzales had broken into Dan’s Sports Cards on Kingsley Avenue and stole some $100,000 worth of collectible baseball cards.

K&V Investment Group and GCS Downtown Development LLC presented Green Cove Springs City Council with an aggressive plan to construct St. Elmo Square. As proposed, the 24,000-square foot ground floor would include shops and restaurants and the upper three floors would include residences ranging from 1,380 to 1,980 square feet.

The Town of Orange Park Planning and Zoning Board approved an agreement allowing food recovery nonprofit Waste Not Want Not to operate from a converted home at 2050 Carnes St. Neighbors were assured that all parking would be street-level and no semi-tractor trailer trucks would make deliveries there.

20 years ago, 1998
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested five people allegedly involved in a $4 million cocaine ring that was operated out of a home in the 1200 block of Dolphin Street in Orange Park.

Pauline Yeoman, a deputy clerk in the Clay County Clerk of Court office, testified to a Clay County Grand Jury investigating her boss, John Keene, clerk of court.

NGH Marriott of Houston, Texas announced it had purchased 3.63 acres on Kingsley Avenue where it planned to build an assisted living facility.

30 years ago, 1988
Drug agents from three departments and two counties made 14 arrests in a $10 million crack cocaine ring allegedly headed by Henry Manns. Police seized 30 vehicles, including a Mercedes Benz, a Ferrari and a BMW.

The Transit Authority overseeing the proposed route for an outer beltway agreed to move the pathway south of Green Cove Springs after protests from city residents who did not want the roadway to upend their quality of life.

Clay County Commissioner Garry McIntyre formed a political action committee aimed at gathering 10,000 petitions opposing a proposed hazardous waste site to be established on the grounds of Camp Blanding.

40 years ago, 1978
The Jacksonville Electric Authority board of directors accepted the purchase of two 1,000-acre sites in Clay County where it planned to build two 600-megawatt coal-fired power plants in partnership with Florida Power & Light.

The Green Cove Springs City Council took issue with plans to build an overhead water tank when city officials learned that Clay Electric Cooperative was to supply power to the water tower, instead of the city’s own electric company.

The Board of County Commissioners held a special meeting in which they approved a 300-lot development in Lake Asbury to be rezoned from agricultural to residential, a proposal previously voted down by the county’s Zoning Board.