Bindal Municipality

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.
The municipality is the 81st largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Bindal Municipality is the 306th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,399. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 10% over the previous 10-year period.

History

The ancient district of Bindalen belonged to Namdalen. However, in 1658, when the county of Trondheim was ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Roskilde, the status of the border district was ambiguous, with residents paying some taxes to Helgeland, in Nordland, and some to Namdalen. The decision was then made to redraw the county boundary to run down the Bindalsfjorden and assigning the northern part, Nord-Bindalen, to Nordland county and the larger part remained in Trondheim county and became Sør-Bindalen. The two remained separate after Trøndelag county was reunited with Norway in 1660.
In 1815, a single Church of Norway prestegjeld called Bindalen was created, combining Nord-Bindalen and Sør-Bindalen into one church parish, despite belonging to different counties.
The 1838 formannskapsdistrikt law divided the country into civil municipalities which were supposed to correspond to the parishes of the Church of Norway. The parish of Bindalen was created as Bindal Municipality, but the southern part was part of Nordre Trondheim county and the northern part of the municipality belonged to Nordland county, making for an unusual situation. In 1852, the county border was moved so that all of Bindal Municipality was located in Nordland county.
On 1 January 1964, the area around the inner Bindalsfjorden and the village of Lande was transferred from Bindal Municipality to Brønnøy Municipality.

Name

The municipality is named after the Bindalen valley. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Birna. The river name is derived from the word which means " bear". The last element is which means "valley" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Bindalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Bindal, removing the definite form ending -en.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 9 February 1990. The official blazon is "Azure, six nails Or in annulo". This means the arms have a blue field and the charge is a circular arrangement of six nails or rivets. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The blue color in the field symbolizes the importance of the sea and boating and the circular arrangement of rivets was chosen to symbolize the importance of the boat building industry in Bindal. There are six rivets to represent 6 school districts, 6 originally inhabited islands, and 6 fjords areas in the municipality. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen.

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes within Bindal Municipality. It is part of the Sør-Helgeland prosti in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Parish	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Solstad	Solstad Church	Holm	1888
Vassås	Vassås Church	Vassås	1733

Geography

Bindal Municipality borders four municipalities in Trøndelag county: Høylandet Municipality and Nærøysund Municipality in the south, Namsskogan Municipality in the southeast, and Leka Municipality in the west. Bindal also has borders Sømna Municipality, Brønnøy Municipality, and Grane Municipality in Nordland county. 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 highest point in the municipality is the tall mountain Tjeldviktinden on the border with Brønnøy Municipality. Another notable mountain is the tall Heilhornet. It also includes part of the lakes Eidvatnet 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

Bindal Municipality is 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 is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Helgeland District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council of Bindal Municipality is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayor of Bindal Municipality is the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who have held this position:

1872–1873: J. Arntsen
1877–1878: Karl Julius Arnesen
1881–1884: Otto Steen Olsen Holm
1885–1887: Rev. Amundsen
1888–1891: Kristoffer Arntsen
1892–1894: J.L. Rognaas
1895–1899: Martin Hansen
1900–1902: K. Andersen
1903–1910: P.P. Dybvik
1911–1919: Johan Lilleheil
1920–1922: Johan Reppen
1923–1925: O. Skaalvik
1926–1928: Hans Sylten
1929–1931: Johan Lilleheil
1932–1934: Tomas Breivik
1935–1945: Fredrik Sverdrup
1946–1951: Ole Røtting
1952–1955: Oddwin Skaiaa
1956–1957: Ole Røtting
1958–1959: Oddwin Skaiaa
1960–1963: Ole Røtting
1964–1967: Kristen I. Sylten
1968–1971: Bertram Bull-Njaa
1972–1975: Håkon Hald
1976–1979: Amund Skotnes
1980–1983: Kristen I. Sylten
1983–2007: Magne H. Paulsen
2007–2010: Per-André Johansen
2010–2015: Petter Bjørnli
2015–2023: Britt Helstad
2023–present: Frode Næsvold
Economy

The most important industries in Bindal are aquaculture, farming and forestry.

Culture

Boat races for Nordland boats have been held annually since 1978 in the main village of Terråk during the last weekend of June. Bindal has a traditional boat-building industry and Nordland boats are still manufactured here.

Education

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

Terråk skole in Terråk is a 1st-10th grade school and the largest in Bindal with approximately 100 students attending it.
Bindalseidet friskole is an independent school located in Bindalseidet. It is a 1st-10th grade school.
Notable people
Otto Sverdrup, a sailor and Arctic explorer
Fredrik Paasche, an educator, author and literary historian
Carl Ludvig Godske, a mathematician and meteorologist
Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, a salmon farmer and politician