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.
Houston is an unincorporated community in northern Loramie Township, Shelby County, Ohio, United States. It has a post office, the Countryside Market, and a grain elevator. It is home to Houston High School, which serves grades 7-12 and has approximately 400 students. Houston is part of the Hardin-Houston School District, the elementary school of which is located in the unincorporated community of Hardin. Although unincorporated, Houston has a local post office located near The Farmers Elavator Company. The transmitter site of WHIO-FM (formerly WPTW-FM,WCLR and WDPT respectively and licensed to Piqua) is located south of the community on Aiken Road adjacent to State Route 66. The southern portion of the community was once known as Mount Jefferson according to vintage road maps of the county before consolidation in the 1950s. The unincorporated junction of Dawson is located a mile to the east on Hardin Station-Houston Road near the Conrail tracks.