Bindal

Bindal kommune
Municipality

Heilhornet mountain in Bindal

Coat of arms

Nordland within
Norway

Bindal within Nordland
Coordinates: 65°5′48″N 12°35′19″E / 65.09667°N 12.58861°E / 65.09667; 12.58861Coordinates: 65°5′48″N 12°35′19″E / 65.09667°N 12.58861°E / 65.09667; 12.58861
Country Norway
County Nordland
District Helgeland
Administrative centre Terråk
Government
  Mayor (2010) Petter Bjørnli (H)
Area
  Total 1,264.48 km2 (488.22 sq mi)
  Land 1,193.26 km2 (460.72 sq mi)
  Water 71.22 km2 (27.50 sq mi)
Area rank 76 in Norway
Population (2011)
  Total 1,592
  Rank 347 in Norway
  Density 1.3/km2 (3/sq mi)
  Change (10 years) -16.7 %
Demonym(s) Bindaling[1]
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1811
Official language form Bokmål
Website www.bindal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Bindal is a municipality in the Helgeland region in the extreme southwest part of Nordland county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Terråk. Other villages include Bindalseidet, Holm, Vassås, Horsfjord and Åbygda.

General information

Hildringen in Bindal (1852).

In 1838, the parish of Bindal was split into two municipalities (see formannskapsdistrikt) because the parish included land in both the counties of Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland. The new law required that municipalities be located only in one county, so the parish was divided into two municipalities: Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen. In 1852, the county border was moved south to its current position and the municipalities of Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen were merged back together to form the municipality of Bindal. On 1 January 1964, the Tosen-Lande area (population: 296) was transferred to Brønnøy.[2]

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Birnudalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Birna (now Åbjøra) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The river name is derived from the word birna which means "(female) bear".[3][4]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1990). The arms show six gold rivets on a blue background to represent the boat building industry in the municipality.[5]

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Bindal. It is part of the Sør-Helgeland deanery in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Churches in Bindal
Parish
(Sokn)
Church NameLocation
of the Church
Year Built
SolstadSolstad ChurchHolm1888
VassåsVassås ChurchVassås1733

Geography

Bindal borders four municipalities in Nord-Trøndelag county: Høylandet and Nærøy in the south, Namsskogan in the southeast, and Leka in the west. Bindal also has borders with the Nordland municipalities of Sømna, Brønnøy, and Grane. The Bindalsfjorden runs through the central part of the municipality.

From the coast, the municipality reaches into the mountains towards the lake Majavatnet in Grane. The tallest mountain is the 1,058-metre (3,471 ft) tall Heilhornet.[6] It also includes part of the lakes Eidevatnet and Fjellvatnet, which also partially lie in Brønnøy municipality. Other lakes include Åbjørvatnet, Kalvvatnet, and Saglivatnet. The river Åbjøra runs through the eastern part of Bindal. Part of the island of Austra is in Bindal.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Bindal, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Bindal is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to every four years. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:[7]

Bindal Kommunestyre 2015–2019
Party NameName in NorwegianNumber of
representatives
 Labour PartyArbeiderpartiet9
 Centre PartySenterpartiet2
 Socialist Left PartySosialistisk Venstreparti1
 Local ListsLokale lister5
Total number of members:17

Economy

The most important industries in Bindal are farming and forestry. The largest secondary industry is the door manufacturer, Bindalsbruket, with about 130 employees. Bindal has a traditional boat-building industry and Nordland boats are still manufactured here.

Culture

Boat races for Nordland boats are have been held annually since 1978 in the main village of Terråk during the last weekend of June.

Education

Bindal has three schools; two of them are classified as independent and therefore not administered by the municipality.

References

  1. "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  2. Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.
  3. Den Norske historiske forening (1871). "Bemerkninger om stedsnavnene i den søndre del af Helgeland". Historisk tidsskrift (in Norwegian). Kristiania: 108. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  4. Rygh, Oluf (1905). Norske gaardnavne: Nordlands amt (in Norwegian) (16 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 1.
  5. Store norske leksikon. "Bindal" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  6. "Heilhornet". Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  7. "Table: 04813: Members of the local councils, by party/electoral list at the Municipal Council election (M)" (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway. 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06.

External links

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