Reporting from the villages of East Iceland and on everything that concerns the region. Updated daily.
A brand-new, state-of-the-art Komatsu excavator has recently drawn considerable attention in Seyðisfjörður. Not so much the excavator itself, perhaps, as its highly unusual colours. It is no coincidence that the machine was delivered on Pink Day itself, 21 October, on which day, and indeed throughout the month, everyone in the country is especially encouraged to wear pink in order to…
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Four boys and all the girls attended a cooking course at Eskifjarðarskóli in the autumn of 1953. Þorsteinn Skúlason won a prize for his recipe book, and the trophy still adorns his dining table.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office has issued a yellow warning for increased risk of landslides and rockfall in Austfirðir, East Iceland as far as Glettingur, and on Tröllaskagi. The warning is in effect until noon tomorrow.
On 6 February 2024 a storm swept across the Eastfjords, and the farmers at Vattarnes were hit especially hard. In one small spot the wind intensified and caused major damage to a residential house and sheep sheds. The roof of the outbuildings was blown off in one piece and then shattered in another …
Winds will pick up around 7 pm this evening from the northwest in the Eastfjords, and gusts could reach up to 35 m/s in wind streams near mountains, for example in Hamarfjörður.
Staff at the Housing and Construction Authority (HMS) have for some time been working to estimate the property boundaries of farms across the country where no surveyed delineation exists. The authority has now published draft boundaries for a total of 1,160 farms in Northeast and East Iceland.
Two new staff members have been hired at the Tjarnarskógur preschool in Egilsstaðir, where a severe staff shortage at the start of the school year greatly limited how many children could be admitted. Everything now looks to be improving, although the preschool still needs to advertise for staff.
The mayor of Múlaþing says the addition to Loftbrú, announced yesterday by the infrastructure minister, is not what people are calling for. Not everyone can live in Reykjavík, and rural residents’ access to services must be made more equal.
We who live in East Iceland help fund the nation’s shared services just like everyone else. A large share of those services and that activity is in the capital area. Many of the state’s main institutions are there, and that is where we go to get a wide range of services, cultural events and sports activities. Residents of other parts of the country who live far from Reykjavík face a similar situation.
Jóna Árný Þórðardóttir, town and port director of Fjarðabyggð, was elected the new chair of the Icelandic Ports Association on Friday. She takes over from Lúðvík Geirsson and is the very first woman to hold the post.
The Housing and Construction Authority (HMS) has finished estimating the property boundaries of about 1,150 farms in Northeast Iceland and East Iceland. The farms cover about 20 thousand square kilometres, and with the new data, property boundaries have been estimated in areas equivalent to about 83% of Iceland’s total area.
Jóna Árný Þórðardóttir, municipal and harbour director of Fjarðabyggð, is the first woman to serve as chair of the Icelandic Ports Association (Hafnarsamband Íslands). She was elected chair at the association’s annual congress, which ended today.
Jóna Árný Þórðardóttir, town manager and port director of Fjarðabyggð, was elected chair of the Icelandic Ports Association (Hafnarsamband Íslands) at the association’s annual congress, which ended today. She is also the first woman to serve as the association’s chair.
The Friends of the Old Church in Djúpivogur association will receive an annual grant of ISK 500,000 from Múlaþing over the next five years for the running and continued restoration of the old church.
East Iceland District Court has acquitted Fjarðabyggð of a claim by Hrefna Dagbjört Arnardóttir, owner of the farm Óseyri in Stöðvarfjörður, for recognition of the municipality’s liability for damages over livestock trespassing on the farm. Legal costs were waived. Hrefna demanded …
Little has changed in veterinary staffing in the southeast of the country. Shifts have not been filled since 16 August, all the way from Kirkjubæjarklaustur to Breiðdalsvík. The government has done nothing, says the chair of the veterinarians’ association.
The ptarmigan hunting season starts tomorrow in all parts of the country. Hunting is permitted from Friday through Tuesday for just under a month, or until Christmas where the season is longest. In South Iceland and Northwest Iceland hunting is allowed until 17 November, in the Westfjords a week longer, until 1 December in West Iceland and Northwest Iceland, and until 22 December in East Iceland. The ptarmigan population is considered strongest there. Hunting…
Support for the Social Democratic Alliance in the Northeast constituency jumps in a new opinion poll. The support the Independence Party gained over the summer is reversed. Four parties are polling enough to win seats in the constituency.
Plans to merge the police districts of East Iceland, South Iceland and the Westman Islands raise serious questions about residents’ safety and the management of policing. Before going any further, the government must show how the changes are meant to improve services here in the east. A larger district is no guarantee of stronger policing.
The person charged with smuggling almost 43 kilos of cocaine, found in their car on arrival in Seyðisfjörður in March, said at the main hearing of the case today that they were none the wiser about the substances found. They could offer no explanation of how such a large quantity came to be carefully hidden in their van. At the time this was by far the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Iceland, but the strength…
Gunnar Lárus Karlsson, who broke the Icelandic record in backyard ultra running in style, was given a hero’s welcome when he arrived home in Reyðarfjörður this morning.
The owner of the Óseyri farm near Stöðvarfjörður says all unfenced land in Iceland appears to have been subject to some form of expropriation by a court ruling in his case against Fjarðabyggð. The court found that the municipality had no obligation to round up trespassing sheep from the farm because the animals had come from a shared grazing area.
The East Iceland Cancer Society is holding a pink event in Egilsstaðir tomorrow evening as part of the Icelandic Cancer Society’s awareness campaign. The East Iceland Cancer Society has received a good response to the campaign.
The East Iceland District Court has acquitted Fjarðabyggð of a claim by a forest farmer in Stöðvarfjörður, who argued that the municipality was obliged to round up sheep that strayed onto their unfenced land. One of the key questions in the case is where the sheep came from before they entered the farmer’s land.
The board of the East Iceland Teachers’ Association criticises changes to the primary school grading system, which replace letter grades with numbers. Education committees in East Iceland have voiced concern about how quickly the switch is due to happen.