Kvås (municipality)

Kvås is a former municipality that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The 116 km2 municipality existed from 1909 until its dissolution in 1963. The municipality lies in what is now the central part of the municipality of Lyngdal. The administrative centre of Kvås was the village of Kvås where Kvås Church is located. Other villages in the Kvås area are Birkeland and Moi.



History
The municipality of Kvås was established on 1 January 1909 when the old municipality of Lyngdal was divided into three new municipalities: Austad, Lyngdal, and Kvås (population: 736). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, Austad (population: 608) and Kvås (population: 493) were re-incorporated into the municipality of Lyngdal along with the Gitlevåg area of the neighboring municipality of Spangereid.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Kvaas farm (Kváss) since the first Kvås Church was built there. The meaning of the name is uncertain. One possibility is that it comes from the word which means "valley" or "hollow". Prior to the 1917 Norwegian language reform law, the name was spelled with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the letter å was used instead.

Government
While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Herredsstyre) of Kvås 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.