Five years ago, 2021

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis personally delivered news of a $700,000 Florida Small Cities Community Development Block Grant to Green Cove Springs for neighborhood revitalization projects.

• The St. Johns River Water Management District approved the partnership between the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project, Clay County Utilities Authority, Gainesville Regional Utilities, JEA and St. Johns Regional Utilities.

• HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital announced it would build a free-standing Emergency Room at 2554 Blanding Blvd. in Middleburg.

10 years ago, 2016

• Green Cove Springs’ Ozell McNabb Jr., 22, surrendered to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office after he learned the U.S. Marshal’s Service was looking for him as a suspect in the shooting death of Kolton Thomas Shearer, 18.

• Nicklas Freeze, 17, is eager to show a 10-inch scar on his chest following heart surgery two years earlier to inspire others to never stop believing in themselves.

• Two Clay County nonprofits – Waste Not Want Not and America’s Heart— collect and deliver food to the survivors of massive flooding in West Virginia.

20 years ago, 2006

• Parents and school district administrators prepared to attend open house events at Clay County’s newest school, a K-8 Oakleaf School that opened a month later.

• James Curry, 39, of Orange Park, was arrested following a foot chase for allegedly robbing the Food Lion on Wells Road with a .38-caliber handgun.

• Construction crews leveled parts of the former Tyson chick hatchery on U.S. Highway 17 on Fleming Island to make way for construction of Christ’s Church.

30 years ago, 1996

• Clay County District Schools reported 2,347 students were suspended in the previous school year, compared to 2,867 from the year before.

• St. Johns River Community College, Clay County District Schools and the Board of County Commissioners entered in an agreement to fund a performing arts auditorium on campus. The BCC would pay $1 million during a two-year span.

• The Clay County School Board approved the final plans for a $17 million junior high on Sandridge Road.

40 years ago, 1986

• James E. Forsham of Keystone Heights was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on drug conspiracy and income tax evasion charges.

• The Clay County Health Department issued a measles outbreak warning after it confirmed three clinically proven cases.

• The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Dion Patrick Turner of Orange Park and charged him with kidnapping and aggravated battery for allegedly forcing Mark Allen Giffey into a car while Giffey was walking to a store on Parkwood Drive.