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.
Burnside is a city in Pulaski County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 637 at the 2000 census. In 2005, Burnside became the only town in Pulaski County to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink in qualified establishments. Since then, Burnside annexed several miles of shoreline along Lake Cumberland in order to include Lee's Ford Marina, allowing it to sell alcohol. On August 28, 2007 Burnside voters once again passed the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink in restaurants. The final tally was 227-104 in favor of the sale of alcohol in restaurants that seat at least 100 people and derive at least 70% of the total gross receipts from the sale of food. This vote was started by two Pulaski County clergymen in an attempt to reverse Burnside's "moist" status.