Five years ago, 2016

• The Office of the Inspector General releases documents in a fraud investigation whether some school officials placed students in Exceptional Student Education programs to avoid taking rigorous state tests.

• The Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 to improve enforcement to deal with blighted properties.

• The Fleming Island Conference Center opens to provide several small businesses to share working space under the same roof.

10 years ago, 2011

• Brownie Troop 850, which consists largely of girls from Coppergate and Doctors Inlet elementaries, works to send 120 boxes of cookies to soldiers serving in Afghanistan as part of its “Cookies for Courage” campaign.

• Mark Preston Akers, a County Public Works employee, was placed on administrative leave after being arrested for mutilating four ducks with lawnmower equipment.

• Green Cove Springs Mayor Debbie Ricks and her husband raise $2,600 from a barbecue for the Augusta Savage Arts and Community Center.

20 years ago, 2001

• The Town of Orange Park breaks ground on a new public safety building.

• Motorists are thrilled to know the long-awaited Branan Field-Chaffey Road extension, the first leg of the First Coast Expressway, will soon open.

• A homeless man is decapitated after he was hit by a train while he laid on the tracks near Magnolia Point in Green Cove Springs.

30 years ago, 1991

• The City of Green Cove Springs will extend its curfew another 60 days after police chief Gail Russell said the plan had “been rather successful.”

• The Clay County School Board votes to reduce the distance students from kindergarten to sixth grad must walk to school from two miles to 1.5 miles.

• Clay County voters will decide during the presidential primary whether it wants its superintendent of schools to be elected or appointed.

40 years ago, 1981

• Tenative millage rate in Clay County is expected to increase from 6.737 to 8.646 to fund the county’s $18.6 million budget.

• Nearly 300 gathered at the Clay County Fairgrounds to celebrate Volunteer Appretiation Day.

• Residents tell the BCC a gate proposed on Bayard Road in Green Cove Springs will keep four-wheel drive pickups from tearing up the road, dumping garbage and hunting.