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.
Cottekill is an unincorporated hamlet in the town of Rosendale, Ulster county, New York in the United States. It is approximately 2.25 miles west of the hamlet of Stone Ridge, 2.5 miles north of Rosendale village, 8.75 miles south of the city of Kingston and 10.9 miles north of the village of New Paltz. It features a Post Office (12419), its own fire department and the Cross Roads Deli at the intersection of Ulster County Routes 1 (Lucas Avenue) & 26 (Cottekill Road). Schools located here are the Rosendale Elementary School (K - 4), part of the Rondout Valley Central Schools District and the Brookside School, a private school for children with developmental disabilities. It is also home to the Sustainable Living Resource Center, a project of Sustainable Hudson Valley.