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.
Pelkie is an unincorporated community in Baraga County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is on the Sturgeon River in the northeast part of Baraga Township at 46°48′48″N 88°38′11″W / 46.81333°N 88.63639°W / 46.81333; -88.63639. Pelkie was settled by French Canadian woodsmen in about 1885, and was first known as "King's Landing" and was renamed Pelkie after an early settler. Finns who settled there initially called the place Kyrö, after the place they came from in Finland. The name became Kuro after a railroad was built through the area. The precise name of the early settler is unknown. Because many Finns settled in the area, the Finnish name Pelkinen has been suggested as the original. However, the name may also have been derived from a former French-Canadian settler. It was a station on the Michigan Central Railroad, and a post office was established on April 30, 1903. The Pelkie ZIP code 49958 serves areas in the north and northwest of Baraga Township in Baraga County, as well as an area of northeast Laird Township, southwest Elm River Township, and southern Portage Township in Houghton County.