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.
Mason, also known as Mason City is a town in Mason County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 1,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Point Pleasant, WV–OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Mason was initially known as Waggener's Bottom. It was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1856, and named for Mason County, which was named for George Mason, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. Mrs. Joanie S. Strode became the first female mayor in West Virginia when she was appointed in her husband's place in 1932. She served as the mayor of Mason until the end of her husband's term in 1933.