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.
North Amherst is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Amherst in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,019 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. There are several large apartment complexes in North Amherst, housing mostly students of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst along with low-income families (Graduate Students). Apart from these housing developments, North Amherst also sports many beautiful old houses, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Village is said to be an excellently-preserved example of a 19th-century farm community. North Amherst is also home to a large majority of Amherst middle income families as the main street (East Pleasant Street) has many housing developments built off of it. This includes "Grantwood" which is the largest neighborhood/development in Amherst. Cushman Village also resides in North Amherst. This small section of the area is unique as the roads turn back into each other unlike the square roads off East Pleasant Street. Cushman Village has many historical homes and is also located near the Cushman Common and the Cushman Store.