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.
Westwood (nicknamed "The Hub of the Pascack Valley") is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 10,999. Westwood was officially incorporated as a borough on May 8, 1894, from portions of Washington Township, early during the Boroughitis phenomenon then sweeping through Bergen County. Isaac D. Bogert served as the first mayor of the Borough. In April 1909, the area of Westwood was enlarged through the annexation of the 'Old Hook' section of the borough of Emerson, and on September 24, 1957, portions of the borough were exchanged with Emerson.