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.
Lincoln (also Lincoln City) is a small unincorporated community in northern Sussex County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Seaford, Delaware Micropolitan Statistical Area. The planner that originally laid out the town planned for it to become the county seat. Lincoln lies on U.S. Route 113 between Ellendale and Milford. The town was never incorporated, however streets were laid out and several businesses and residences came, surrounding the current Norfolk Southern Railway line. Lincoln is the headquarters of the Delaware Coast Line Railroad. Recently there has been a push to incorporate Lincoln, primarily for two reasons. First, the city of Milford is quickly growing towards Lincoln and could eventually envelope the town. Secondly, the Delaware Department of Transportation is developing a Milford By-Pass for US 113 that could divide the small community of Lincoln, effectively cutting off neighbors from each other, as well as causing the removal of several homes and businesses and at least one of the two schools in Lincoln.