5 years ago, 2013
The Economic Development Committee of the Board of County Commissioners voted to approve a state proposal to give tax breaks to R.J. Corman Signaling LLC in return for bringing to Fleming Island 58 high-tech jobs with an average yearly salary of $62,500.

More than 100 people attended a public hearing about the Florida Department of Transportation’s plan to add two lanes to the existing four lanes of Blanding Boulevard between Old Jennings Road and County Road 218 in Middleburg.

Torey Leonard Jenkins of Jacksonville was in the Clay County Jail awaiting sentencing for the death of toddler Destiny Patterson whom he was accused of killing September 17, 2009 while watching her for the child’s mother.

Green Cove Springs City Council reviewed a list of land it would consider annexing into the city limits. The list included Gustafson Dairy Farm property at Green Cove Avenue and County Road 15A, including the undeveloped, city-owned – but not part of the city – Ed Gustafson Regional Park.

10 years ago, 2008
Ultralight aircraft pilot Paul Zellek suffered a broken left leg when the plane became entangled in power lines and crashed in the Glenhaven subdivision in Lake Asbury. Zellek was practicing emergency landings.

The 2008 Concert on the Green was originally slated to be the last performance of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra until the Fleming Island Rotary Club stepped in to run the 2019 event held during Memorial Day each year for the past 20 years.

Despite a recommendation from Town Manager John Bowles to maintain the millage rate at 5.8 mils, Town Council voted to raise millage to 6 mils for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested and charged Douglas Brian Mann Jr. of Palatka and Parker Pete Slater of Jacksonville Beach with armed robbery after they attempted to rob a pharmacist at gunpoint to obtain oxycontin.

20 years ago, 1998
The administrator for Holly Point Nursing Home on Kingsley Avenue in Orange Park said its 104 patients had been removed from the facility as its employees walked out for not having been paid for a month. Its owners would soon file for bankruptcy.

After butting heads for the previous three years, the Board of County Commissioners voted to deny a request for $28,000 for the annual budget for the film commissioner, Carl Post. The move would effectively eliminate the position.

Quigley House, the domestic violence shelter, celebrated its most successful fundraising drive of $1.6 million it would use to fund construction of the shelter’s new facility.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office investigated the shooting of Rodney Earl Campbell at his Kingswood Avenue home where he told police he was tied up and shot by a man he only knew as “Red.” Campbell had loaned “Red” $900 and held “Red’s” truck as collateral for the loan.

30 Years ago, 1988
Clay Electric Cooperative launched a crime watch program in which its employees would stay on the lookout for and then call in to law enforcement suspicious activities they witnessed in neighborhoods where they worked.

Jacksonville attorney William Bruce Muench qualified to run for a judgeship in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which covers Clay, Duval and Nassau counties.

Fourth Circuit Public Defender Lou Frost ran ads thanking voters for having confidence in him and return to another four-year term of service without an opponent in that year’s election.

Pak’s Karate in Green Cove Springs came away from a tournament against cross-county rival Pak’s on Blanding Boulevard in Orange Park with nine first place finishers. More than 250 guests attended the tourney.

40 years ago, 1978
Orange Park Town Council issued a letter stating it was declining to voluntarily recognize the Orange Park Fraternal Order of Firefighters as a collective bargaining unit.

New numbers from the Florida Department of Labor showed Clay County’s unemployment rate was 5 percent, only down one-tenth of a percent from the same period in 1977.

Power black outs from the City of Green Cove Springs power company were costing pipe manufacturing company Johns Manville thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs and down time while interrupting the manufacturing process.

On a vote of 38 to 32, employees of the Clay County Road and Bridge Department voted to become part of the national Teamster’s Union after an 18-month drive to get workers onboard.