Five years ago, 2020 

• Calling it a “$206.5 million investment in Clay County,” Baptist Medical Center Clay CEO Darin Roark announces the groundbreaking for a new 100-bed hospital on Fleming Island. 

• Marie Kaltz donates her Winn-Dixie reward points to buy $300 worth of Thanksgiving dinners that will be given to 100 families at Clay Behavioral Health Center. 

• Beth Clark vows to bring “professionalism” to the school board after she was elected to represent District 2. 

10 years ago, 2015 

• More than 150 students from Lake Asbury Junior High participate in the 3K Turkey Trot to highlight physical fitness and long-term health. The run marked the end of a food drive where students also collected 760 canned goods, small trinkets and toys. 

• Col. Matt Johnson is installed as the new Commander at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center. 

• The Clay High football team beats North Marion 65-58 in the Class 5A, Region 2 semifinal to move one game away from the Final Four. Bilal Ally rushed for 496 yards and five touchdowns in the victory. 

20 Years Ago, 2005 

 • Melissa Hawkinson of Fleming Island pulls 5-year-old Cameron Dorsey from his father’s sinking Volkswagen Jetta near the boat ramp on Lake Shore Drive. Police charged Darren Dorsey with attempted murder and aggravated child abuse. 

• The Clay Board of County Commissioners vote 4-1, with Commissioner Christy Fitzgerald dissenting, on a report from county auditor Mike Price that laid out the causes for an illegal dumping scandal that rocked the government for at least three years. The 58-page report was turned over to the State Attorney’s Office. 

• Fleming Island Elementary Principal Linda Braxton and staff celebrate the school having been named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. 

30 Years Ago, 1995 

• Orange Park High student Barbara Mapes designs the Town of Orange Park its first flag. It was presented during a ceremony dedicating the town’s new town hall. 

• Clay County Clerk of Court John Keane returns approximately $1.258 million in excess fees to the county government’s general fund. 

• Calvin Burney, head of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, tells Clay Today that the transportation planning agency was reviewing the possibility of having a rail line “run up the Branan Field/Chafee Corridor.” 

40 Years Ago, 1985 

• G. Rodman Porter Jr., president of Clay County Bank, holds a groundbreaking ceremony for a new 6,100 branch in Keystone Heights along with builder E. Vaughan Rivers and R.J. Head Jr., chairman of the bank’s board. 

• The Clay County School Board votes 3-2 to organize all schools north of Green Cove Springs by grade levels of kindergarten-sixth, seventh-ninth and 10th-12th. Superintendent Ann Wiggins offered the proposal as an alternative to setting up a joint-use school on the campus of St. Johns River State College. 

• Publix turkeys were on sale for 79 cents a pound.