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.
Elberta is a village in Benzie County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 457 at the 2000 census. The village located in the east of Gilmore Township, on the south side of Lake Betsie, which is formed by the Betsie River before flowing into Lake Michigan. The village is on M-22 just south of Frankfort. M-168, one of the shortest state highways in Michigan, extends 0.95 miles from a junction with M-22 in downtown Elberta to the former Ann Arbor Railroad ferry docks in Elberta. Elberta was first settled in 1855 and incorporated as South Frankfort in 1894. It was renamed Elberta in 1911 for the local Elberta peach. The village's founder is said to be George M. Cartwright.