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.
Cisne is a village in Wayne County, Illinois, United States. The population was 673 at the 2000 census. Cisne was named in 1870 in honor of Levi Cisne on the suggestion of Charles A. Beecher, who was influential in building the railroad and the station around which the village of Cisne grew. Sources: The Story of Cisne by L.S. Harrington; and The House of Cisne, by J. C. Lappin, Wayne County Historical Society Scrapbook, Wayne County Press, Fairfield Illinois, October 3, 1955.