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.
Monsey is a hamlet, in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the state of New Jersey; east of Suffern; south of Airmont and west of Nanuet. The 2000 census listed the population at 14,503. The hamlet has a large and influential community of Orthodox Jews, consisting predominantly of Chasidim, Hareidim and other Orthodox groups, as well as the Vizhnitz-Monsey hasidim who reside mostly in the Village of Kaser. Rockland County was inhabited by the Munsee band of Lenape, or Delaware Indian, of the Algonquian languages. Monsey Glen, an Indian encampment, is located west of the intersection of NY 59 and NY 306. Numerous artifacts have been found there and some rock shelters are still visible. The Monsey railroad station, which received its name from Munsee, a Lenape chief, was built when the New York & Erie Railroad passed through the glen in 1841.