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.
Kipton is a village in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The population was 265 at the 2000 census. Kipton was the site of a famous train wreck on April 19, 1891, which was caused by railroad engineers' watches not being in sync and led to the adoption of stringent quality-control standards for railroad chronometers in 1893. Kipton is at one end of a rail trail, the North Coast Inland Trail. The path travels east from Kipton and then curves northeast, going through Oberlin and continuing on to Elyria. There is a small park in Kipton where the path terminates.