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.
Lucas is a village in Richland County, Ohio, United States. Lucas was founded in 1836, and is part of the Mansfield, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 620 at the 2000 census. In 1945, Lucas was made famous as the location of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's wedding. They were married on May 21 at Malabar Farm, the country home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, who was a close friend of Bogart's. The wedding was held in the Big House. In 1994, numerous clips from the movie The Shawshank Redemption were filmed in Lucas at Malabar Farm. These clips include the scene at the beginning of the movie where Andy is parked outside his home contemplating murdering his wife (filmed outside of Pugh Cabin), and the oak tree and rock wall scene where Red finds the box from Andy under the black rock. The oak tree is clearly visible from Bromfield Road, and the adjacent rock wall is still standing to this day.