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.
Saint Benedict is the name of the post office at Mount Angel Abbey in Marion County, Oregon, United States. When it moved from Gervais to the town of Mt. Angel in 1884, the postal service would not allow the abbey to establish its own post office as it was less than a mile from the Mount Angel post office. A new abbey was completed on the top of nearby Mount Angel butte in 1903, and Saint Benedict post office was established there in 1914. Mount Angel Abbey was originally named Saint Benedict's Abbey, which in turn was named for Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict. The ZIP code of the post office is 97373.