Sandøy Municipality

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Sandøy is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The Script error: No such module "convert". municipality existed from 1867 until its dissolution in 2020. The area is now divided between Aukra Municipality and Ålesund Municipality on the border of the traditional districts of Romsdal and Sunnmøre. The administrative centre was the village of Steinshamn. Other villages included Ona and Myklebust.

Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the Script error: No such module "convert". municipality was the 416th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Sandøy Municipality was the 373rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,238. The municipality's population density was Script error: No such module "convert". and its population had decreased by 5.3% over the previous 10-year period.^[1]^[2]

The municipality was spread out over many islands in the mouth of the vast Romsdal Fjord. The Flatflesa Lighthouse and Ona Lighthouse protect the boats traveling around the municipality. The Nordøy Fixed Link project was constructed from 2018 until 2023 and it included three undersea tunnels and several bridges that connected the main islands of Sandøy Municipality and the islands of Haram Municipality to the mainland.^[3]

General information

File:2010 09 06 Ona Nordøyene 164.JPG

View of the island of Ona

File:Ortenlandskap.jpg

View of the island of Orta

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View of the island of Orta

The new Sandø Municipality was established on 1 January 1867 when the Akerø Municipality was divided into two: the western islands (population: 601) became the new Sandø Municipality and the eastern islands (population: 2,026). The spelling of the name was later changed to Sandøy Municipality.^[4]

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the Myklebust area on Harøya island and some smaller surrounding islands to the west (population: 287) were transferred from Haram Municipality to Sandøy Municipality.^[4]

On 1 January 2020, Sandøy Municipality was dissolved. The islands of Orta and Lyngværet (and the small surrounding islands) were merged into Aukra Municipality.^[5] The remainder of the old Sandøy Municipality was merged with Haram Municipality, Ørskog Municipality, Skodje Municipality, and Ålesund Municipality to form one large municipality of Ålesund.^[6]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the farm and small island of Sandøya (Template:Langx) since the first Sandøy Church was built there. The first element comes from the word Template:Wikt-lang which means "sand". The last element is Template:Wikt-lang which means "island".^[7] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Sandøen or Sandø. The municipality was also known as Sandø i Romsdal to distinguish it from the nearby Sandø Municipality in Sunnmøre which was known as Sandø i Sunnmøre. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Sandøy.^[8]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 12 December 1986 and they were in use until the municipality was dissolved on 1 January 2020. The official blazon is "Azure, three piles conjoined in dexter argent" (Template:Langx). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a three triangles conjoined at a point along the left side. The charge has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The design is meant to mimic the light beams from the Ona Lighthouse. This was chosen since lighthouses play an important role in the safety in the municipality, which consists of 871 islands and skerries. The arms were designed by Astor Furseth. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[9]^[10]^[11] Script error: No such module "Hatnote".

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".) within Sandøy Municipality. It was part of the Molde domprosti (arch-deanery) in the Diocese of Møre.

**Churches in Sandøy Municipality**
Parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Sandøy	Sandøy Church	Sandøya	1812
Sandøy	Harøy Church	Harøya	1934

Geography

Sandøy was an island municipality. Sandøy consisted of 871 islands, but only five were regularly inhabited by the time the municipality was dissolved. The main inhabited islands were Harøya, Sandøya, Finnøya, Ona, and Orta. Ona is the most famous of the islands and is a popular tourist destination due to its history and the Ona Lighthouse. The highest point in the municipality was the Script error: No such module "convert". tall mountain Harøyburet on the island of Harøya.^[12]

Government

Sandøy Municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), 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.^[13] The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Romsdal District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of Sandøy Municipality is made up of 19 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.