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.
Ringold is a community in western McCurtain County, Oklahoma, 12 miles northwest of Wright City, Oklahoma. It was formerly called Burwell. A United States Post Office opened at Burwell, Indian Territory on October 31, 1906. It was named for William P. Burwell, first postmaster. Its name was changed to Ringold on May 10, 1911. Its name comes from Ringold, Texas, from which a number of its early white settlers came. Until the advent of Oklahoma’s statehood Burwell was located in Cedar County, Choctaw Nation, in the Indian Territory. Its residents had much in common with those of other communities in the area, some of which, such as Rattan, Oklahoma are now included in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma.