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.
Wakeman is a village in Huron County, Ohio, United States, along the Vermilion River and is named after Jesup Wakeman, a resident of Fairfield County, Connecticut, who was involved in western land speculation between 1800 and 1840. The population was 951 at the 2000 census. Wakeman is served by a branch of the Willard Memorial Library.