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.
Hopatcong is a Borough in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 15,888. The area had been called "Brookland" in the 1800s and the lake that was expanded to become Lake Hopatcong had been known as "Great Pond" or "Brookland Pond". During the 1803s, the name of the community had been modified to "Brooklyn", to match the spelling of the city on New York's Long Island. Hopatcong was originally established as the Town of Brooklyn on April 2, 1898 from portions of Byram Township. On March 22, 1901, the Borough of Hopatcong replaced Brooklyn. In 1922, residents of Byram Cove, Northwood, and other areas to the west of the original land area of the borough, voted to leave Byram Township and join Hopatcong, leaving the Borough with its current borders.