Øvrebø is a former municipality that was located in the old

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total popul ...

county in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The municipality existed twice during the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally, from 1838 until 1865, the municipality encompassed roughly the same boundaries as the present-day municipality of Vennesla. The second iteration of the municipality was only and it corresponded to the central part of present-day Vennesla municipality. The municipal centre was the village of Skarpengland. The small village of

Øvrebø Øvrebø is a rural district and village in Vennesla municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located about north-northwest of the city of Kristiansand. The village of Skarpengland lies about east of Øvrebø. The district of Øv ...

is located about west of Skarpengland, and this is where the Øvrebø Church is located.

History

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Øvrebø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

law). It existed as a municipality until 1865, when it was dissolved and split into two: the southeastern part of the municipality (population: 1,103) became the new municipality of Vennesla and the remainder of the municipality became Øvrebø og Hægeland (population: 1,829). On 1 July 1896 the municipality of Øvrebø was re-created when the municipality of Øvrebø og Hægeland was divided into two separate municipalities: Øvrebø (population: 888) and Hægeland (population: 843). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1964, the Eikeland area (population: 39) of Øvrebø was transferred to neighboring

Songdalen Songdalen is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Vest-Agder county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1964 until 2020 when it was merged with Søgne and Kristiansand municipalities to form a new, much la ...

municipality, while the rest of Øvrebø (population: 925) was merged with Hægeland and Vennesla to form a new, larger municipality of Vennesla.

Name

The municipality (originally the

) is named after the old ''Øvrebø'' farm () since the first Øvrebø Church was built there. The first element comes from the word which means "upper". The last element is which means "farm" or "farmstead" (it is

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

with the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...

word ''"boer"'' which means "farmer"). The name therefore means "the upper farm".

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

senior citizen Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

services,

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was

indirectly elected An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council

The

of Øvrebø was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Mayors

The

mayors In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

() of Øvrebø (incomplete list): *1838-1839: Aksel Christian Pharo *1842-1843: Aksel Christian Pharo *1861-1861: Alf A. Robstad *''(1865-1896: Municipality dissolved)'' *1896-1901: Terje Horrisland *1902-1907: Lars O. Røyneland *1908-1914: O.G. Homme *1914-1916: Lars O. Røyneland *1917-1940: O.S. Ilebekk *1941-1945: Anders Skarpengland *1945-1947: O.S. Ilebekk *1948-1955: Torjus Eikeland *1956-1959: Anders Skarpengland *1960-1963: Tellef Lie

References