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.
Pikeville is a town in Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 704 at the 2008 census. It is included in the Goldsboro, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is notable on a somewhat obscure level as being the home of Collier Motors, the last known American Motors dealership left in existence. It is the home of Nahunta Pork Center, a butcher shop claiming to be the largest all-pork retailer in the eastern United States.