VAALA MUNICIPALITY

Vaalantie 14, FIN-91700 VAALA
Tel. +358 (0)8 5360 111, Fax +358 (0)8 5360 181

MUNICIPALITY OF VAALA

The municipality of Vaala was established in 1954 and is located in the Kainuu province.

The distance to both of nearest cities, Oulu and Kajaani, is 93 kilometres.

The total area of  Vaala is over 1700 km², of which 1300 km² is land area and about 450 km² is covered by water (lakes and rivers). Over 40 % of Lake Oulujärvi belongs to the Vaala municipality.

Lake Oulujärvi is the fourth largest lake in Finland and is called "The Sea of Kainuu".  Manamansalo Island in Lake Oulujärvi is the best-known place in Vaala. The community centre of Vaala is located at the starting-point of the River Oulujoki on the shore of Lake Oulujarvi.

CONNECTIONS

By road
Highway No 22 passes through Vaala municipality. The distance to both Oulu and Kajaani is 93 km.

By train
The railway station is in the centre of Vaala. Passenger trains stop in Vaala with connections via Oulu to the North and the South and via Kontiomäki to East and South.

By air
The nearest airports are in Oulu and Kajaani (distance ca 100 km). There is also a small airstrip in Säräisniemi (6 km from Vaala centre).

INHABITANTS

There are about 3 600 inhabitants in Vaala. Most people working on the service industries (60 %), while forestry and agriculture combined gives employment to 20 % of the inhabitants and the remaining, 20 % of the population works in industry.

OCCUPATIONS

The largest employers are the municipality of Vaala, The Pelso prison, VB- Betoni Oy (concrete element factory), Vaalan OK- Kaluste Oy (furniture factory), HitsaCon Oy and Skaider Oy (metal workshops), Vaalan Juustola Oy (cheese dairy) and some forestry companies. In Vaala there are around 120 active farms, of which about 90 milk producing farms the average field acreage being 32 hectares.

HOUSING

Finnish people prefer to live in their own detached house or apartment in terraced house, but there are also quite a lot of people who rent a flat from the municipality. Vaala municipality owns over 350 tenements.

SERVICES

Vaala municipality has its own health centre which has a policlinic and a hospital for 32 patients with 3 doctors, 2 dentists and about 60 other employees working in the Vaala health centre. Old people are cared for either in a nursing home, or they are in non-institutional care in their own homes or in service apartments. Children's day-care is also well arranged. There is a nursery for 42 children and Vaala also supports children's day care in private homes.

Educational services are good in Vaala with provision for pre-schools, primary schools, and Vaala's own senior grade and high school. In the college of Oulujärvi everybody can study different subjects, music, handicrafts, art and take some university level courses as well. There are also very good library services in Vaala with a well equipped library.

Sport is a favourite way to spend leisure time. In Vaala there are indoor halls for volleyball and badminton. For outside exercise there is  a new high standard track field, tennis-courts, ice hockey rink, skating rink and many kilometres of maintained ski tracks lit in wintertime and over 200 kilometres of snowmobile tracks.

Most people in Vaala are nature lovers. They like to go fishing or boating on Lake Oulujärvi and hunting in wilderness. They enjoy their every mans rights by picking berries and mushrooms, or just hiking and walking in the forests. In winter people go skiing or ice fishing on the frozen lake. Winters last from November to April. Many families have their own summer cottage where they spend most of their leisure time. In Vaala municipality there are over 1,700 summer cottages.

Especially in summertime there are cultural and sport happenings almost every weekend.