Five years ago, 2018

• “Tad’s Toys” made its inaugural premiere at Orange Park Elementary School. Kathy Lawrence, project manager of Network for Students with Emotional/

Behavioral Disabilities founded the annual Christmas toy drive to honor her son. Tad, a senior at Orange Park High with cystic fibrosis, died in 2003. Tad’s attitude and memory inspired her, she said.

• Gov. Rick Scott announced the appointments of Leslie Dougher, James Reid, and Rev. Bobby Crum and the reappointment of Sam Garrison to

the St. Johns River State College District Board of Trustees. Garrison would eventually be elected to the Florida House of Representatives.

10 years ago, 2013

• Green Cove Springs-based Vac-Con announced a $5.8 million sale of 18 of its signature excavation trucks to the water and sewer supplier for the city of Lima, Peru. The 18 trucks were shipped from the Port of Jacksonville’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.

• Mark Phelps the assistant principal at Charles E. Bennett Elementary School in

Green Cove Springs was surprised with a flash mob as a farewell to celebrate his upcoming retirement after a nearly 30-year career.

20 years ago, 2003

• The Clay County Sheriff’s Office reported that a string of automobile burglaries had ended with the arrests of four area teens. The break-ins occurred primarily in the Ridgeview and Orange Park South areas of Clay County.

• Mitchell Watts turned himself over to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office after confessing that he sedated and then killed Carrie Cromwell, his long-time girlfriend. Her buried remains were unearthed from the backyard of the house they rented. She had been missing since 2001.

30 years ago, 1993

• Wright’s Clay County Farms announced it would cease monthly production of two million pounds of milk at its site on County Road 315, west of Green Cove Springs citing allegations of criminal charges that the company polluted nearby Peter’s Creek.

• Officials on the Clay County Hospital Authority awaited of official word on a buyout offer for Clay Memorial Hospital in Green Cove Springs from Kentucky-based Vencor Inc.

40 years ago, 1983

• Clay County parents called Sheriff Jennings Murrhee to complain about

a local pastor who had handed out anti-abortion material to students at Orange Park

High. Murrhee then called the State Attorney’s Office, who said the act did not violate any type of law.

• Stacey Barber, a 17-year-old student from Middleburg High, took first place honors at the National 4-H Club competition. Her win earned her the rank of Master 4-H’er for her project in “Fashion Review.”