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.
Kenova is a city in Wayne County, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers. The name of the town comes from its unique position where the borders of Kentucky, Ohio, and (West) Virginia meet. Founded in 1859 but not incorporated until 1894, the town's early history and development was centered around the railroad industry. It is home to a major Norfolk Southern Ohio River Bridge. CSX Transportation's former Chesapeake and Ohio Kanawha Subdivision travels through the town as well. The population of Kenova was 3,485 at the 2000 census. Kenova is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649. The city is also near the site of the Southern Airways Flight 932 aviation disaster. In 1970, a plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed on a hillside on approach to the Tri-State Airport, killing all on board. A movie about the tragedy, We Are Marshall, was released in 2006.