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.
Manville is a Borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 10,343. Manville was named after the Johns-Manville Corporation, which maintained a large manufacturing facility in the borough for decades. Historically, many of Manville's residents are of Slavic — mostly eastern Polish (23.1% of the borough's population) and western Ukrainian) descent — with many businesses and restaurants geared towards the Polish-American community.. Manville was formed by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 1, 1929, with a referendum held on April 18, 1929.