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.
David is an unincorporated town in Floyd County, Kentucky, United States along County Route 404. Located in the Appalachian Mountains, it lies approximately 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Lexington. The town was named for David L. Francis, President of Princess Elkhorn Coal Company which originally built and owned the town. It bears the postal ZIP code 41616. Federal census of 2000 recorded a population of 435. The David School is featured in the 6-hour documentary film Country Boys which was broadcast in Frontline on PBS, about two residents, Chris and Cody, and their life in a poor, rural mountain town. Although it was a company town, it was in many ways a model coal community with many amenities not typical of the region at the time including a swimming pool, central water and sewer, and cable tv service. The company also supported a children's choir which toured nationally. When Princess-Elkhorn sold the town in the late 1960's, many of these amenities fell into disrepair and the housing stock deteriorated from over 100 units to a little more than 30. The town rallied around a hepatitis outbreak and ended up purchasing the entire town from the investor who owned it. the mechanism for this purchase was the creation of the David Community Development Corporation, which went on to secure funding for a new water and sewer system, a fire station, a new park and several dozen new homes.