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.
Hermantown is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, USA. The population was 7,448 at the 2000 census. A suburb of Duluth, Minnesota, it has been the only city in the county to report population growth as much of the area's residential and commercial expansion occurs there. Hermantown is located on the tip of Lake Superior. The eastern section of the city has an appearance typical of a lower-density bedroom community, with large, leafy lots and occasional subdivisions. The car-oriented "mall area" Miller Trunk Corridor of Duluth has sprawled well past the border into this part of Hermantown. The western part is dominated by a more rural landscape, reminiscent of the past agricultural focus of the city. Hermantown's motto is "The City of Quality Living ". One of Hermantown's more interesting features is the proliferation of "Jackson Homes" on certain roads. These single-family dwellings were built during the Great Depression as subsistence homesteads. Many today retain their original brick appearance, albeit with additions. Hermantown's current mayor is Wayne Boucher, who won a 2008 election against opponent Susie Stockinger.