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Mike Morris
John Hobday
Margit Karkela
Lynn Keillor
Alanna Simone Tyler
THE TRIP
April 22-23 - Days 1-2
April 24 - Day 3
April 25 - Day 4
April 26 - Day 5
April 27 - Day 6
April 28 - Day 7
April 29 - Day 8
April 30 - Day 9
May 1 - Day 10
May 2 - Day 11
May 3 - Day 12
May 4 - Day 13
May 5 - Day 14
May 6 - Day 15
May 7 - Day 16
May 8 - Day 17
May 9 - Day 18
May 10 - Day 19
May 11 - Day 20
May 12 - Day 21
May 13 - Day 22
May 14 - Day 23
May 15 - Day 24
May 16 - Day 25
May 17 - Day 26
May 18 - Day 27
May 19 - Day 28
May 20 - Day 29
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May 5, 2003
Gol
Lynn Keillor
Today was our day to learn more about Gol, and various
issues surrounding the small community.
 We
met with Lornts Letnes, the community administrator for the past 14 years
(and also a Rotary member) at the "Kommunehuset," otherwise known as the
nerve center for Gol. (Photo right: Lorntz Letnes, commune administrator
in Gol, explaining history of the famous Gol Stavkirke, built in the late
Viking era.)
In the reception area of the building stands a model of Gol's best-known
resident: a stave church. Stave churches - commonly seen on Norwegian
post cards - are built with telephone-style poles set along the outer
walls providing structure for the building.
 There
are few stave churches remaining in Norway, and that includes Gol. The
current stave church in Gol, visible from the highway, is a recently-built
replica (late 1990s). The original church was torn down in 1883 to make
way for a new church (which the state demanded be built). The landowner
of the old Stave church saved the wood, though, and it was later rebuilt
as a part of the national folk museum in Oslo. As my host Tor Olav Sviggum
(perhaps a relative of Rep. Steve?) commented, "When things get old, it's
old and nobody is interested in it. When things get really old, that's
when people get interested." (Photo above left: Painting of the Gol
Stavkirke. Original was given as a gift to King Oscar in late 1800's and
still stands at the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo. A full size replica
was later reconstructed in Gol.)
Lornts pointed to a "wall of fame" in the conference room, with pictures
of all Gol mayors since the 1830s.Well, all mayors save one. During the
Nazi occupation in the early 40s, a must disliked Norwegian Nazi sympathizer
named Kvissling appointed mayors, including Gol's. The Nazi-approved mayor
is not included with the rest.
Lornts continued to say that there's still many hard feelings in the Gol
area that still exist in the communities older population. There's been
people who've refused to share nursing home rooms because of things that
happened during the war. He also told of a Nazi baby factory in the nearby
community of Geilo where young Norwegian women bore the children of German
soldiers. After the war, many of these children were shipped off to Germany,
often with their mothers. Those who ended up in East Germany, he said,
had it the worst. Norwegian-German children who remained in Norway had
tough lives, too, he added.
We also got some stats on the community, which include:
¤ 4,400 inhabitants
¤ 2,800 full-time workers
¤ 1,900 of these workers live in Gol
¤ 1.5 - 2% unemployment
¤ ½ % goal for annual population growth
¤ 30% of jobs are in tourism
¤ 30% of jobs in business/retail
¤ 7% (and declining) in agriculture
¤ 313 full-time workers for the community
Gol is also in a pilot program for government changes. As the systems
stands, and elected council of 21 appoints the mayor. As of this fall,
Gol residents will vote for a mayor; and the winner must have at least
50% of the vote. That may not sound too difficult, until you consider
that Norway as at least seven parties. If 50% is not achieved on the first
election, the top too vote-getters will participate in another election.
It's a system much like the French have, he said.
Gol has similar problems to a lot of smaller communities in Minnesota:
aging populations, a demands and expectations of services that outweigh
budgets, and thoughts for consolidating various services with other area
communities. He's hoping for a trend to consolidate, or at least streamline
some government function, noting that the most cost-effective community
population number is 15,000. But that's not easy either: he said that
its neighbor community, Ål, wasn't so eager to spend its budget
surplus on any of Gol's debt load.
 Tonight
was our meeting with the Gol Rotary Club. The club has about 40 members,
and there seemed to be a good turnout tonight. We're not sure if it was
because of us, or because they were serving pastries tonight. Most clubs
in Norway don't include a meal, and it seems that a number just have coffee
or tea - no treats. (Photo right: Rotary clubs have enjoyed our four-part
harmony rendition of "America the Beautiful" followed by joining the club
in singing "Ja, Vi Elsker", the Norwegian national anthem.)
For me, though, the highlight was this afternoon. I met a local snowmobile
dealer and later a die-hard enthusiast who were more than happy to give
me the lowdown on snowmobiling in Gol.
Namely these two were frustrated over what's essentially been an outlawing
of snowmobiles in the country. The sale of machines is still allowed,
but high registrations fees and umpteen regulations basically prohibit
their use. So if you're like Iver or Ronny, you snowmobile anyway and
just hope you don't get caught. The laws have had a real effect on Iver's
sales (he sells the Finnish brand Lynx) and he's selling approximately
20 units annually, mostly utility machines for farm use. If they're caught
off private property, though, there's some stiff fines: 700 dollars for
the first offense, 1,200 dollars for the second offense, and a trip to
court for the third.
Neither understands why snowmobiles have been singled out as the demon
when boats (which have many of the same pitfalls as snowmobiles) have
virtually no restrictions. Iver, especially, sees that snowmobile tourism
could be a real boon to the local winter economy, noting that people pay
unreasonable amount of money to take a "snowmobile safari" in Finland.
Both men are skeptical about any type of solution. They know what they
think will work, but aren't convinced it will ever become a reality. They
think that dedicated snowmobile trails are a part of the solution, but
as Ronny said, "They have to be trails that people will actually want
to use." He anticipates that any government-determined trail system would
likely be so limited that it would ultimately fail. As for Iver, he's
heard so many people say that they're going to build a trail system similar
to that in Sweden that he just doesn't believe it any more.
Someone described the rules against snowmobiling in Norway as such: Sales
of snowmobiles in Norway keep increasing, while the possibility to ride
them has shrunk to almost nothing. Plus, people are supposed to pay 3,000
in registration fees for machines they're not allowed to use. But in the
end, people don't pay the fees but ride their machines anyhow, because
stupid rules create anarchy. Neither Iver nor Ronny disagreed.
Not everyone in Gol agrees with Ronny and Iver, though, and if a yes/no
vote was made in Gol on snowmobiles, Ronny isn't sure what the outcome
would be. In the meantime, though, neither is willing to give up on their
sport and both thing there's place enough for everyone.
On one more snowmobile-related note, I met Arnfinn Rustberggar, who's
dad Torstein was the original importer/dealer of Arctic Cat snowmobiles
in the 1960s. He also told me about a Norwegian-built snowmobile called
Snøgg, which was built in the 1950s. I'm hoping he'll be able to
find the pictures.
Tomorrow we're heading out for a three-day fjord tour, which we're calling
the "vacation" part of the trip. I'm guessing, though, that we'll take
just as many pages of notes!
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