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.
Gypsum, referred to by locals as "sinkhole" or "God's Country", is an unincorporated community in eastern Portage Township, Ottawa County, Ohio, United States. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 43433.. Children from Gypsum families generally attend the Port Clinton City School District. The neighborhood is considered friendly, home-spun, and mainly conservative. The community is name for the gypsum rock, the mining of which was originally the foundation of the community's business, commerce, and population growth. Because these mines are located throughout the community and township, the area is subject to excessive erosion because of sinkholes — hence the name "sinkhole".