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.
Merlin is an unincorporated community in Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The area is known for sport fishing and whitewater rafting on the Rogue River. Merlin's ZIP code is 97532. A new railroad station in this location in 1883 was called "Jump Off Joe" for a local stream. The station was renamed Merlin in October 1886. The name came from a railroad civil engineer who named it for the Merlins he saw in the area. "McAllister" post office was established about a mile north of Merlin in 1885, then moved to the vicinity of the railroad station and renamed Merlin in 1891.