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.
Milton (formerly known as Scratch Ankle, for its propensity to grow briars, or Milltown, because Milton had the largest mill around) is a city in Santa Rosa County, Florida, United States. The city was incorporated in 1844 and is home to Naval Air Station Whiting Field. The population was 7,045 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 8,044 . It is the county seat of Santa Rosa County. It was also called "Scottman's Anchorage" for the many lumber barges that traversed the Blackwater River - thus lending the further support of the nickname "Scratch Ankle" (Scottsman's Anchorage - Scratch Ankle). Milton is part of the Pensacola–Ferry Pass–Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area.