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.
Cole Camp is a small city in Benton County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,028 at the 2000 census. The town is known for the annual street fair in September. It also hosts a Maifest in May, an Oktoberfest in October and a Christbaumfest in late November that all highlight the town's German heritage. Cole Camp was the site of a skirmish early in the American Civil War, when the local pro-Union Home Guard company was attacked by a Missouri State Guard force on June 19, 1861. At this battle of Cole Camp, the Home Guard were defeated with a loss of 35 men killed or wounded.