5 Years Ago, 2011
The Green Cove Springs City Council passed a six-month ban on allowing “Internet cafes” to set up in the city saying it needed time to study the gambling emporiums or write an ordinance permanently banning them.

Orange Park Town Council set its preliminary tax rate at 6.3 mills – the previous year’s level – knowing the rate would bring in 5.94 percent less revenue.

Jim Alabiso or Jacksonville swam from Walter Jones Historical Park in Mandarin to Fleming Island Marina in two hours and two minutes.

10 Years Ago, 2006
The Clay County School Board reached a tentative contract agreement with the Clay County Education Association that would give teachers 13.3 percent hike in pay and benefits.

Orange Park Town Council amended its current year budget adding $1.3 million needed to fund construction projects, such as paving, drainage and water and sewer improvements.

The Town of Penney Farms announced plans to use a $100,000 state grant to build a passive park for residents.

20 Years Ago, 1996
Clay County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Wes Gronikowski said four W.E. Cherry Elementary School students would be sentenced to scrubbing, sweeping and mopping up at the school after breaking in and allegedly stealing a box of party favors, some coins and candy.

The Keystone Heights City Council unanimously accepted $84,123 in services and benefits offered by Clay County as part of an interlocal agreement, a seven percent increase from the previous year.

Orange Park resident Melissa Moses, 28, a graduate of Orange Park High, prepared to swim for the gold in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She would go on to finish fourth in the women’s three-meter diving competition.

30 Years Ago, 1986
Susan “Soozi” Weigel, a Middleburg realtor and member of the Clay County Development Authority, announced she would run against incumbent Republican Florida House member Chance Irvine. Weigel was the ex-wife of former House member Frank Williams who held the seat for 12 years.

Michael Gustaf Nordgren of Lake Asbury was charged with criminal mischief after he repeatedly spit snuff into a Clay County Sheriff’s Office bullet-proof vest that was in the floorboard of the officer’s patrol car. The officer had given Nordgren and a friend a ride from Strickland’s store in Kingsley Lake to a convenience store at County Road 218 and State Road 21 in Middleburg.

Clay County School Board Chairman George Bush announced he had been subpoenaed in a lawsuit filed by School Superintendent Ann Wiggins, whose suit claimed board members usurped her authority when they rejected the transfer of seven district administrators to other jobs.

40 Years Ago, 1976
George Wesley Rosier, 34, pled guilty to five counts of vehicular manslaughter in July 1975. Included in the accident on U.S. Highway 301 in Maxville was Jerry Stillson, a former assistant state attorney. Rosier registered a .27 blood-alcohol content after the crash.

Duty-free lunch and lower class sizes remained sticking points in federal mediation between the Clay County Education Association and the Clay County School District.

William Ernest Cherry and his wife Nernie Cherry celebrated their 60-year wedding anniversary. W.E. Cherry served on the Board of County Commissioners from 1924 to 1936. In 1937, he ran for the Clay County School Board on which he served until 1965.