The Washington County board on Tuesday approved the transfer of the remaining dollars in the Elizabeth W. Jordan Trust to the Marine on St. Croix Library Jordan Bequest Fund held by the St. Croix Valley Foundation.

The board voted unanimously to approve the transfer of the $241,284.

When Jordan, an avid user of the Marine Library, died in 2000, she left a bequest of nearly $227,000 to the Washington County Library system “to be used specifically for the Marine on St. Croix Library and in any manner which is deemed appropriate by the Board of Administration.”

County officials managed the trust and granted an annual stipend to the Marine Library from those assets.

The Marine Library Association last year requested to transfer the Jordan bequest into an endowment fund overseen by the St. Croix Valley Foundation, where the money could be invested in high-yield funds, said Jim Maher, president of the Marine Library Association. Funds left to the county can be invested only in lower-yielding, fixed-income funds, he said.

Maher thanked the county board and library staff for agreeing to the transfer.

“With the money set to be managed in an endowment fund, I believe Ms. Jordan’s kind gesture years ago to specifically name the Marine Community Library as a beneficiary will continue to serve that purpose for decades to come,” Maher said after the meeting. “We see the Jordan Bequest, managed as an endowment, as something to build on as we work to enhance the long-term financial health of the Marine Community Library, so it can grow and evolve to meet our community’s needs over time.”

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