Five years ago, 2021 

• Oakleaf High’s junior weightlifter Tamira Briley wins the gold medal in the 110-pound FHSAA state weightlifting championship at St. Cloud High. 

• Fleming Island High graduate Kaitlyn Ludlam uses her experience in AstroBot Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to attract more women into the male-dominated field at the University of Florida. 

• World War II veteran Mel Garrett, a crossing guard stationed at Argyle Elementary, turns 93 on the job. She received balloons, a cupcake and a party hat from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

10 years ago, 2016 

• Former certified accountant James Kevin Hargnett of Green Cove Springs was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing $16.6 million from former accounting clients. 

• Troubled Rodeway Inn in Orange Park pays the $2.6 million it owed CenterState Bank in unpaid mortgage payments. 

• The effort to re-zone Moosehaven from residential to Planned Unite Development dies with the Orange Park Planning and Zoning Board after a motion was made but nobody seconded it. 

 20 years ago, 2006 

• Kenneth Antoine McDougal reportedly steals Timothy Smith’s truck. Smith chased McDougal and he crashed and was apprehended by police. Smith found McDougal had stashed stolen items in the truck, among them a class ring of Chris Martin, a U.S. Army soldier then on deployment in Iraq. Smith gave the ring to Martin’s mother to return to the soldier upon his return. 

• Transportation officials announce a long-awaited $5.2 million plan to extend County Road from Blanding Boulevard to County Road 220, scheduled for completion in fiscal year 2006-07. 

• The Clay County Chamber of Commerce announces Stock Building Supply would lease about 187,500 square feet in a Green Cove Springs warehouse and create 50 local jobs its first year and invest about $7.5 million in construction renovations and manufacturing. 

30 years ago, 1996 

• Three elderly residents of Orange Park are required to pay a waste management fee, even though they were exempt from property taxes and had to arrange and pay for their own garbage pickup, so they called Glorida Einstein, a legal aid, for help. She appealed the case to the Florida Supreme Court. 

• JACS Cybercafe opens in Orange Park on Wells Road, offering coffee, pastries and Internet access and instruction. It has since closed. 

• A Clay County Grand Jury convicts Ghada Farhat for the murder of her husband, Eddie Farhat. She claimed thieves killed him while burglarizing their Orange Park home, but items she said they stole were found in her attic. 

40 years ago, 1986 

• Fourth Judicial Court Judge Lamar Winegeart sentences James W. Ortagus to 20 years in prison for the shooting death of F. Ellis Fowler, 45, of Green Cove Springs. The shooting happened in the parking lot of a shopping center at County Road 218 and Blanding Boulevard. 

• Clay County School Board Chairman George Bush cautions the cost surrounding adding two holidays to the 1986-87 school calendar – Martin Luther King Jr. Day and President’s Day. 

• The Fleming Island Advisory Committee are presented plans to build a 1,250-home development called Pace Island, where homes would be priced from $85,000 to $500,000. Attorney John Kopelousos presented the plans on behalf of landowners John and Gussie Pace.