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.
Shickshinny is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 959 at the 2000 census. The community's name likely means "fine stream" in a local Native American language. According to "The founding of the Shickshinny Borough," an undated Suburban News article posted on the website of the Historical and Preservation Society of the Greater Shickshinny Area, "the first permanent settler in what became Shickshinny was Ralph Austin of Connecticut. This was the period of Connecticut jurisdiction of 1782."