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.
Orrick is a city in Ray County, Missouri, United States. The population was 889 at the 2000 census. Orrick now includes what was once the village of Albany (there is another Missouri community called Albany, Missouri. The hamlet a mile northeast of Orrick was where Bloody Bill Anderson was killed during the American Civil War. The current mayor of Orrick is Marilyn Butler. The town's recent claim to fame is its winning high school football team, the Orrick Bearcats. In 2007 and 2008, the team went undefeated and claimed championships in MSHSAA's Class 1.