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.
Findlay is a village in Shelby County, Illinois, United States. The population was 723 at the 2000 census. Findlay is the home of Eagle Creek Resort, an Illinois state park resort on Lake Shelbyville. Also on Lake Shelbyville, Wolf Creek State Park, is also nearby. Findlay Marina on Lake Shelbyville is also a popular spot for boaters. The town is also the location of one of only 3 Goat Towers in the world, the "Tower of Baaa". The tower consists of 5000 bricks with 276 spiral steps, and is modeled to look like a castle turret. Findlay rests in the middle of some of the richest, most fertile farmland in the United States. Prices per acre for the so-called "black dirt" are among the highest.