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.
Lorimor is a city in Union County, Iowa, United States. The population was 427 at the 2000 census. Lorimor was founded by J.S. Lorimor who was given the honor of renaming the city, when the town grew after he gave land to the railroads as they traveled through town, in return for the railroad placing a water stop in the town. With the business from the Railroads, and his 2,000-acre (8.1 km) farm of bluegrass seed, the town was quite successful in its early years.