County to accept millions from Tudhope estate

A posthumous gift to McLeod County from the late newspaper publisher Annamarie Tudhope could be worth about $5 million.

The McLeod County Board passed a resolution Tuesday (Sept. 22) to accept a bequest from the Tudhope estate and honor the portion of her will requiring the funds to be used in “the construction of a new McLeod County Jail to be located in Glencoe, Minnesota.”

The will specifies the funds “are to be used only toward the expense of the construction of the building and not for the purchase of real estate, architectural expenses, studies, or other expenses not directly related to the construction of the building.”

Tudhope was the longtime publisher of Glencoe’s 130-year-old newspaper, the Enterprise. She was the sole owner of the family-owned paper since 1974 and died Jan. 31, 2009. She was 94.

In October 2007, the County Board scrapped a $22.75-million plan to expand the current jail’s capacity by spreading south and east of the current site. The county has no plans to construct a new jail and last year spent about $1.5 million upgrading the current law enforcement center.

So, Tudhope’s gift may sit collecting dust — and interest. Speaking at the County Board meeting, County Attorney Mike Junge said he wasn’t certain if the interest earned on the money must also be applied to building a jail.

Junge said the initial value of the gift amounts to $5,075,000 in various investments. He guessed it might be worth between $4.5 to $5.2 million now, depending on how much the investments gained or lost in value. Settlement on Tudhope’s estate has not yet been closed.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)