5 years ago, 2012
The Florida Senate unanimously adopted a resolution authored by Sen. Stephen Wise honoring slain Clay County Sheriff’s detective David White seven days after he was shot during a meth lab raid on Alligator Boulevard in Middleburg.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested and charged Erwin Terrell Marshall, 32, with kidnapping after he allegedly held a woman against her will in his SUV after giving her and her boyfriend a ride on Randall Road.

Green Cove Springs Police charged John Scriven with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he struck Freddie Scriven in the face with a pipe, which broke his jaw and caused him to have a convulsion.

10 years ago, 2007
Debt collection service company Enhanced Recovery Corp. announced it was opening a center in Orange Park that would create 272 jobs.

The Clay County School Board voted to opt out of the Florida Department of Education’s Special Teachers Are Rewarded program that would have provided nearly $2 million for teacher bonuses saying the program had too many holes in it and did not cover every teaching specialty.

The County Commission voted to have staff research ways that a school board representative could be placed on the County’s Planning Commission. The board also heard a department of transportation update explaining that an overpass was going to be built near Oakleaf High School.

20 years ago, 1997
Despite a petition signed by 30 nearby residents, the Board of County Commissioners passed a rezoning request that would allow nine custom homes to be built on seven acres near the intersection of Russell and Henley Roads.

The Board of County Commissioners announced that the Rosemary Hill Landfill was closed ahead of schedule and approximately $500,000 less than originally budgeted.

The word was “ascending” for the win as Dan Bernard, an eighth grade student at St. Johns Country Day School won the countywide Clay County Spelling Bee.

30 years ago, 1987
The Clay County Board of Adjustment heard arguments about whether to shut down the Florida Reptile Ranch on grounds it may be in violation of zoning regulations and not the jaguars, leopards, lions and tigers that neighbors said were not suitable for the area west of Middleburg.

Orange Park Police arrested Norma Jean Saunders and her husband Paul Saunders after an officer saw the woman fire a handgun into her husband’s car on Park Avenue.

The Green Cove Springs Police Department continued to search for the gunman in the shooting death of Walter Leroy Armington, 33, who was shot in the abdomen in front of his Warfield Avenue home.

40 years ago, 1977
Watertown, New York native James Boivin made the front cover of Clay Today as the newest hire with the Orange Park Police Department. Hired from among a pool of 300 applicants, the Green Cove Springs resident had an annual salary of $8,840.

Defense attorney E.E. Durrance asked the state attorney’s office to decide which case – the murder charge or the sexual battery charge – would be heard first in court as he represented William Ronald McMullan, who was charged with killing Orange Park teen Janita Estes.

The Florida Highway Patrol said a lack of reflective devices on his bicycle probably played a role in the traffic death of cyclist Larry A. Blackstock, 22, of Green Cove Springs. He was struck by a pickup truck east of Green Cove Springs on State Road 16.