Alversund Municipality

Alversund is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1885 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now part of Alver Municipality in the traditional district of Nordhordland in Vestland county. The administrative centre was the village of Alversund, where Alversund Church is located.
Prior to its dissolution in 1964, the municipality was the 580th largest by area out of the 689 municipalities in Norway. Alversund Municipality was the 422nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about. The municipality's population density was and its population had increased by 5.4% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

The municipality of Alversund was established on 1 January 1885 when the old Hammer Municipality was divided into two separate municipalities: the northwestern part became the new Alversund Municipality and the rest remained as a now-smaller Hammer Municipality. On the same date, the exclave of Seim which had been a part of Hosanger Municipality before that time became part of Hammer Municipality.
On 1 January 1904, a small area near Hanevik on the island of Askøy was transferred from Askøy Municipality to Alversund Municipality. On 15 October 1923, the western district of Alversund Municipality was separated to form the new Meland Municipality. This left Alversund Municipality with 1,771 residents.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Alversund Municipality was dissolved and the following areas were merged to form a new, larger Lindås Municipality:

all of Alversund Municipality
most of Lindås Municipality, except for the Sletta area that went to Radøy Municipality and the Einestrand, Eikebotn, and Kikallen farm areas that became part of Masfjorden Municipality
all of Hamre Municipality that was located north of the Osterfjorden
all of Hosanger Municipality that was located north of the Osterfjorden
the Nipo, Dyrkelbotn, and Eitrdalen farm areas of Modalen Municipality
the Titland area of Sæbø Municipality
Name

The municipality is named after the old Alver farm since the first Alversund Church was built there. The first element is a compound word derived from which means "all" or "entire" and the other part comes from which means "weather". Thus the farm name means "all weather" or "weather from all directions"-describing a farm with an exposed and unsheltered location. The last element of the name is which means "sound" or "strait", referring to the nearby Alverstraumen strait.

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish within Alversund Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Alversund prestegjeld and the Nordhordland prosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Parish	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Alversund	Alversund Church	Alversund	1879

Geography

Alversund Municipality included land on the southern tip of the island of Radøy plus land on the mainland. It originally included area on the island of Holsnøy as well, but that was later transferred to Meland Municipality. The highest point in the municipality was the tall mountain Vassberget.
Lindås Municipality was located to the north, Hamre Municipality was located to the east and south, Meland Municipality was located to the southwest, and Sæbø Municipality was located to the northwest.

Government

While it existed, Alversund Municipality was responsible for primary education, outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council of Alversund Municipality was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayor of Alversund Municipality was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. The following people held this position:

1886–1889: Ivar J. Hopland
1890–1891: Ole N. Rydland
1892–1897: Nils L. Seim
1898–1898: Nils K. Hjelmtveit
1899–1901: Askild E. Alver
1902–1910: Nils K. Hjelmtveit
1910–1916: Lars Nilssen Seim
1917–1934: Karl A. Elsås
1935–1937: Karl N. Hjelmtveit
1938–1945: Sigvard L. Hopsdal
1945–1946: Hans Karolus Ommedal
1946–1947: Nils H. Herland
1948–1951: Knut L. Sellevold
1952–1955: Wilhelm Tvedt
1956–1963: Sverre Fosse