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.
Cherry is a village in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. The population was 509 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area. Cherry was the site of the Cherry Mine Disaster, which killed 259 coal miners in November, 1909. This was the third most deadly mine disaster in U.S. history (as of 2005).