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.
Athens is an unincorporated town in Henry Township, Fulton County, Indiana. Houses numbering 14 to 20 were there in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. We estimated the population to be on the order of 60. Dr Dick Stinson lived there. He was Indiana's doctor-of-the-year in 1953 or '54. A retired high school principal, Mr Russell Shipley, lived there. A professional house painter, a Mr. Pontius, previously a school teacher, lived in Athens. Garage repair was done by Mr Utter in an attached carport of his house during the 1950s. He had the last house on the W. edge of town, that being on S. side of Hywy 14. A restaurant was to be seen in that town during the 1950s; S. side of Hywy 14. A tiny post-office existed there into the 1960s at least. A lending library existed briefly. Probably in the building of the cafe, AFTER we guess, almost directly across from the small, yellow building in which the post office was. The latter appears to be of block construction. A farm-equipment operation (storage lot and 'show-floor') came somewhat after, well after the restaurant, and continued into at least the mid-1980s. A two-story school building (S. edge of town) existed. Although it was closed in 1937. .4 miles to the east is Mount Hope Athens Cemetery, formerly Hoover Cemetery.