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.
Fontanet (also Fountain, Fountain Station, or Hunter) is an unincorporated community in central Nevins Township, Vigo County, Indiana, United States. It lies along Baldwin St. , northeast of the city of Terre Haute, the county seat of Vigo County. Its elevation is 614 feet (187 m), and it is located at 39°34′34″N 87°14′37″W / 39.57611°N 87.24361°W / 39.57611; -87.24361 (39.5761500, -87.2436276). Although Fontanet is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 47851. Fontanet is part of the Terre Haute Metropolitan Statistical Area. Each year on the last weekend in August, Fontanet enjoys the Annual Fontanet Bean Dinner Festival, a tradition stemming from a Civil War veterans' picnic first held in 1890. The festival was originally held on land near the DuPont Powder Mill. After the mill exploded in 1908, the picnic moved to the site known as Holloway Grove, donated by local landowner Bill Holloway.