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.
Boyne City is a city in Charlevoix County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,503 at the 2000 census. Boyne City is at the southeast end of the east arm of Lake Charlevoix, where the Boyne River enters the lake. It is at the corners of four townships, though it is politically independent: Evangeline Township is to the northwest, Melrose Township to the northeast, Boyne Valley Township to the southeast, and Wilson Township to the southwest. M-75 connects with US 131 twice, at Walloon Lake about 6 miles to the northeast and at Boyne Falls about 6 miles to the southeast. County roads run west out of the city along the north and south shores of Lake Charlevoix.