The borough’s contract with waste disposal company Republic is up for renewal and the company has proposed a 25% price increase for its services to Wrangell.

Other Southeast communities have contracts with Republic that are set to expire next year, so Wrangell hopes to join with them and bargain collectively for a more affordable contract. “We talked about partnering with them to get a bigger contract and have a little more negotiating power,” said Borough Manager Jeff Good.

However, that approach won’t be possible for Wrangell in the short term, since the borough’s contract exp...