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.
Minneapolis is a community located along US 19-E in Avery County, North Carolina. It shares its name with two other cities nationwide: another small town in Kansas, and the much more famous city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, that state's largest city and twin city of its capital.