5 years ago, 2013
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office put up for sale a Palomino horse and three goats left abandoned at a large underground pot grow operation in Middleburg in which old rail cars were used as underground greenhouses.

PACE Center for Girls in Jacksonville set aside seats for six at-risk Clay County students who would fit the guidelines of their program.

Singers Connor Blackley of Fleming Island and Nalani Quintello of Orange Park advanced to the next round of the North Florida 2013 Texaco Country Showdown at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park near Live Oak.

After facing public opposition, Orange Park Town Council abandoned a proposal to hike its millage rate from 6.3 to 6.6 mils.

10 years ago, 2008
The Clay County Democratic Party opened up a new headquarters office on Blanding Boulevard where it hung its logo that Chairman Cary Herold said was fished out of a trash can a year earlier.

Green Cove Springs resident Brian Graham was elected president of the Florida Federation of Young Republicans.

Florida Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos told Clay Chamber members that the Outer Beltway was still in the planning and was held up due to environmental concerns and a complicated tax issue.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Marlow V. Dixon, 41, for dealing stolen property after he absconded $360,000 in military ground support equipment from a warehouse on Industrial Loop Drive near Orange Park.

20 years ago, 1998
The County Commission voted to place five Charter Review Commission initiatives on the Nov. 3 ballot, including one measure that would separate the county auditor duties from that of the clerk of court.

Orange Park Town Council approved scope of work plans to build a new $850,000 public safety building to house administrative offices for its fire and police departments.

A bulldozer rolled over the old sign that read Ridgeview Junior High School as county officials completed work on converting the school to a high school.

County Manager Bob Wilson presented county commissioners with a $106.5 million budget that reflected a 6.5 percent decrease from the previous year, however, the budget also reflected a 1.3 percent increase in the BCC operating budget.

30 Years ago, 1988
Magnolia Layne Inc. presented plans to build an 85,000-square foot shopping center on U.S. Highway 17 between Governors Creek and Harbor Road in Green Cove Springs with hopes of annexing the property into the city.

State budget cuts from the 1988 Florida Legislature would result in reducing health department services to up to 2,000 patients in Clay County.

Dr. John Allen Newman of Jacksonville’s Mount Calvary Baptist Church was set to speak to the Clay County Chapter of the NAACP.

Twenty-two candidates qualified for 11 constitutional offices in Clay County’s upcoming election.

40 years ago, 1978
Clay Electric Cooperative received a $6.6 million federal loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Electrification Administration to upgrade a number of substations and extend electrical lines in its 12-county service area.

Headline read: “Does Clay County need an airport?” for a story updating readers about a study spearheaded by Virgil Fox, director of the Clay County Development Agency, which had been launched a year earlier.

The Clay County firefighting budget was set to top $330,000 for the first time as county officials reviewed budgets for the coming year.

Green Cove Springs City Council voted to settle a three-year-old law suit with Evans Construction Co. to lay to rest a dispute involving sewer collection lines the company was contracted to build.