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.
Laingsburg is a city in Shiawassee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,223 at the 2000 census. Laingsburg is a former agricultural community that transitioned over the 1990s into a bedroom community for Lansing, the state capital. The town itself is small, but the community includes a geographically large area including three man-made lakes (Victoria and Scenic Lakes and Lake Ovid), one natural lake (Round Lake), and a large rural track. Lake Ovid is part of a 2000+ acre Sleepy Hollow State Park. The community is unified by common postal service (zip code 48848) and school service.