5 Years Ago, 2011
The Clay Board of County Commissioners declared Dec. 4 as Maynard H. Cox “The Original Snake Man” Day for his years of work educating the community about snakes.

Keystone Heights Junior-Senior High School student Tyler Dwyer was one of 12 Florida youth named as a finalist for Take Stock in Children’s Leadership 4 Life Fellowship.

Bannerman Learning Center Assistant Principal Patrick Capriola filed a federal lawsuit claiming that school principal Linda Turner unfairly used her position of authority to promote her political and religious beliefs to staff.

10 Years Ago, 2006
BCC members elected Harold Rutledge as chairman and George Bush as vice chairman during a reorganization meeting of the Board of County Commissioners.

Phones were said to be “ringing off the hook” days after the county government mailed out bills for a new $110 fee for universal countywide garbage collection.

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority announced that a study to review the feasibility of establishing a commuter rail system for Northeast Florida would include Clay County.

20 Years Ago, 1996
Forty-two-year-old Pete McCabe took over the helm as principal of Clay High following the election of former principal David Owens as school superintendent. He was joined by newly-appointed vice principal Toni Hanson, whom he would later marry.

Roosevelt Paige was named president of the Clay County Chapter of the NAACP. Addressing the Clay County School Board, Paige said he planned to turn the chapter around in the wake of years of internal problems.

Two 12-year-old boys and an 11-year-old boy were suspended for 10 days for allegedly bringing razor blades on to the campus of W.E. Cherry Elementary School. Witnesses said two of the boys were seen cutting their forearms with the blades.

30 Years Ago, 1986
Clay County Sheriff’s Office deputies closed the parking lot of a Kingsley Avenue Jiffy Store for three hours to investigate an assault and robbery they believed was committed by seven youth who escaped from youth detention center in Jacksonville.

Stokes-Osteen Realty announced plans to build 590 homes, an 18-hole championship golf course and club house that would be known as the Orange Park Country Club. Lot were to sell for $50,000-80,000.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office charged former Grove Park Elementary School teacher Scott Gray with sexual abuse of a child under age 11 after an investigated allegedly indicated he had abused a male special needs student.
40 Years Ago, 1976

Clay Electric Cooperative said a sharp shooter was to blame for a power outage that left 6,156 homes and businesses without power for several hours.

Officials at Clay Memorial Hospital said an aspirin that lodged in the throat of two-year-old Tina Spickney of Green Cove Springs was the child’s cause of death.

Green Cove Springs United Methodist Church celebrated its 105th anniversary. The church was founded in 1871 by Rev. S.S. Moore under the old Methodist Episcopal Church South.