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.
Arcola is an unincorporated town in Lake Township, Allen County, Indiana. Once a booming train station for farm products and a regional U.S. postal center in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the town in more recent years has become a bedroom community of Fort Wayne.