The in basket: Tom Baker of the city of Bremerton electronics shop keeps me informed about new things we’ll be seeing in the city and recently wrote, “The Bremerton School District is having the city install solar power school speed zone flashers for three schools, on Sylvan, Naval and Marine Drive.
“I welcome these signs that will indicate when the speed limit is 20 mph, instead of the blanket 20 mph 7:30 a.m to 4 p.m. seven days a week,” Tom added.
The out basket: I got a little over-excited about this, as I envisioned one of those next-generation signs that blink themselves, like the stop sign Kitsap County has installed on Fairgrounds Road at Old Military. And any change at the interminable school zone on Marine Drive would be an improvement.
It turns out the flashers are just the twin beacons, one above and the other below the school zone sign, that flash at designated intervals around the start and end of school. They are quite common and, in fact, the Sylvan Way Baptist school just down the hill from the Sylvan Way location of the View Ridge school zone has had them for some time.
But they turn out to be somewhat newsworthy, as Patty Glaser of the Bremerton School District says they are the first for her district. And they hope to add more soon.
“We applied for a Washington Traffic Safety Commission grant about a year ago,” Patty said, “and received notification of funding approval this last summer. When we finally received notification of the funding, the vendor was going through some changes, which delayed the start of the project. Our hope was to have the project completed before school started but the delays prevented that from happening.”
The beacons are up now.
The three school zones are Crownhill Elementary, Naval Avenue Early Learning Center (as the elementary school is known these days) and View Ridge Elementary. “When another grant cycle opens, we will be applying for additional funds for Kitsap Lake and Mountain View Middle School,” Patty said.
“The beacon at Marine Drive and Rocky Point will be moved as it should have been placed closer to Dora. We are hoping to add another at Crownhill if we receive additional grant funding during the next round which I believe is later in 2014 or early 2015,” she said.
