# Tolga-Os

Tolga-Os is a former municipality in the old Hedmark county, Norway. The 2,163-square-kilometre (835 sq mi) municipality existed from 1966 until 1976. It included all of the present-day municipalities of Tolga and Os. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Tolga.

## History

Historically, the municipality of Tolga had always included Os until 1926 when Os had become the separate municipality of Os. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1966, the neighboring municipalities of Tolga (population: 1,944) and Os (population: 2,015) were merged to form the new municipality of Tolga-Os. Soon after the merger, there was discontent in the new municipality. On 10 April 1975, the government allowed the merger to be dissolved, so on 1 January 1976 Tolga (population: 1,865) and Os (population: 1,859) became separate municipalities once again using the pre-1966 borders.

### Name

The municipal name was created during the 1960s (and in use until 1976) for the newly merged municipality that was made up of the old municipalities of Tolga and Os. The name was simply a hyphenated combination of the two old names. The first name comes from the old Tolga farm since the first Tolga Church was built there (in 1688). This name comes from the small river which flows through the area (now known as the river Tolja). The name of the river may come from the word toll (Old Norse: þǫll which means "young pine tree". The second name comes from the old Os farm (Old Norse: Óss) since the first Os Church was built there in 1703. The name is identical with the word óss which means "mouth of a river" (here it is referring to the Vangrøfta river running out into the Glomma river).

## Government

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 (Kommunestyre) of Tolga-Os was made up of 25 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
Tolga-Os kommunestyre 1972–1975 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 9 |
| | Christian Democratic Party (Kristelig Folkeparti) | 1 |
| | Centre Party (Senterpartiet) | 13 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 2 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 25 |
Tolga-Os kommunestyre 1968–1971 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 9 |
| | Centre Party (Senterpartiet) | 14 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 2 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 25 |
Tolga-Os kommunestyre 1966–1967 :
| Party name (in Norwegian) | Party name (in Norwegian) | Number of representatives |
| | Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) | 13 |
| | Centre Party (Senterpartiet) | 18 |
| | Liberal Party (Venstre) | 3 |
| Total number of members: | Total number of members: | 34 |
| Note: This first council for Tolga-Os was established in 1966 and it was made up of the existing councils from the old municipalities of Tolga and Os that took office in 1964. |||

### Mayors

The mayors of Tolga-Os:
* 1966-1967: Olav Hummelvold
* 1968-1971: Anders Johnsgård (Sp)
* 1972-1975: Lars Solbu (Sp)