The franchise renewal will take effect 60 days after it is published twice in The Mirror — as long as no protest is lodged.

Sunflower will continue to pay the city a franchise fee equal to 3 percent of gross revenues.

One new part of the agreement centers on the creation of a public access channel exclusively for Tonganoxie. On that channel, the city could, for example, televise council meetings.

According to the agreement, the city would be responsible for purchase of cameras and other hardware, and City Administrator Shane Krull said Sunflower officials had estimated used production equipment would cost about $15,000.

“There’s no specific money budgeted for the acquisition of that equipment,” he said.

It does make sense, he said, to team up with the local school district to share the costs for local programming.

Sunflower is owned by the World Company, which also owns The Mirror newspaper.

Also on Monday, council members:

• Adopted numerous ordinances addressing local laws, including traffic ordinances, an environmental code, a weed ordinance and a junk-vehicle ordinance.
• Agreed to conduct a public hearing on Nov. 8 to determine whether to condemn and order repair or demolition of property at 104 S. Bury.
• Approved a bid from Mid West Coating to repair roofs at the police department and at the city shop. The total is $27,397. The Topeka firm repaired the public library roof about two years ago.