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.
Ridgeley is a town in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States, and part of the Cumberland Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 762 at the 2000 census. Ridgeley was initially known as St. Clairsville, Named for Sir John St Clair, Lt Colonel and Quartermaster General for General Edward Braddock. St Clair accompanied Braddock on his ill-fated march on Fort Duquesne and his disasterous defeat on July 9, 1755. Gary Clites Sr. , author of Ridgeley and Carpendale West Virginia from 1750 a History. Published 2008. It was incorporated as Ridgeley on November 28, 1914, named for the former owners of the land upon which the town was built.