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.
Sale Creek is a small unincorporated community in northern Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Sale Creek is home to Sale Creek High School, as well as the "haunted" Shipley Hollow Road. Sale Creek was also home to northern troops in 1863. It was the HQ of the 6th Regt. Tennessee Volunteers. The community takes its name from the creek which runs through it, which in turn got its name from the auction at the site of the goods and arms taken from the eleven towns of the militant Cherokee in the region before they were burned during the raid of Evan Shelby's troops in 1779, during the Chickamauga wars. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.