Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Alma is a city in Crawford County in the western part of the U.S. state of Arkansas, along I-40 about 13 miles from the Oklahoma border. It was incorporated in 1874, with W. P. Brown as mayor. Stories vary on how the town was named. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of Alma is 4,734, making it the sixth largest city in the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area.