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.
Ada is a village in Hardin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,582 at the 2000 census. In 2006, the city's population was estimated at 5,841. The Wilson Sporting Goods NFL football manufacturing facility is located in Ada, and is the only football manufacturing facility in the United States. The National Arbor Day Foundation has qualified Ada as a Tree City USA. In 1817, The Ohio Shawnee Native American tribe signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs to receive reservation land at Hog Creek near Ada.