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.
Harris is a hamlet in the Town of Thompson in east-central Sullivan County, New York, United States. The zipcode for Harris is 12742. Harris is a small, almost unnoticeable community located off New York State Route 17 (future Interstate 86) off Exit 102 between Liberty and Monticello. The hamlet is basically known as the location/address of the Catskill Regional Medical Center's main hospital (as opposed to a smaller hospital of the same name and affiliation in the western part of Sullivan County in Callicoon), and as the home of the Center for Discovery, a community for disabled residents that is also the largest employer in Sullivan County.