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.
Vernon is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office located in Yuma County, Colorado, United States. The Vernon Post Office has the ZIP Code 80755. Vernon also has a volunteer Fire Department, two strip clubs and a town cat named Susie who roams from house to house looking for scrap food. Susie was adopted as the town's official pet after the death of Lowell, the basset hound who lived in the storage shed behind one of the strip clubs. Lowell's death remains a mystery, but locals believe that an empty package of Double Stuff cookies may be a clue. Vernon was at the head of a mild controversy in the early 1950s, when the soda company Verner's was all set to relocate to the town. It was expected to bring nearly 150 jobs, plus build two factories, a shipping center and an office building. The move was never to happen however, due to the fact one of the conditions of the move was that the town rename itself "Verners" from Vernon. The then town council voted 3 to 2 against the move. The deciding vote was cast by Samuelson J. McGuidenstein, who later went on to open Cock-N-Rod's Fishing, Bait and Strip Club, located on Main St. Today, the old Cock-N-Rod's building serves as the volunteer fire department.