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.
Pontiac is an unincorporated community in southern Ozark County, Missouri about ten miles southwest of Gainesville. It is located on Bull Shoals Lake. The assumption is the town was named after the Indian chief, Pontiac. The town consists of a post office, two or three "resorts," a restaurant, a General Baptist church, and a boat dock/marina. Just across the Arkansas border is Price Place, which is physically separated from Arkansas by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake. Residents of Price Place bond with those of Pontiac to operate the volunteer fire department. Price Place also has a small church.