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.
Ringwood is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 12,396. It is the home of Ringwood State Park which contains the State Botanical Garden, the Shepherd Lake Recreation Area, and Skylands and Ringwood Manors. The Borough of Ringwood was incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 23, 1918, from a "portion of the Township of Pompton", as one of three boroughs formed from Pompton Township, joining Bloomingdale and Wanaque, based on the results of a referendum held on March 22, 1918. The first organizational meeting of the Borough Council took place in the existing Borough Hall on May 6, 1918