The City of Anacortes Public Works department has been strongly considering removing flashing school zone beacons and replacing them with regular 20-mph school zone signs. The beacons were funded by a Washington State Traffic Safety grant in 2010 and have been a maintenance challenge ever since they were installed with software changes and driver confusion during outages.
The City Street Department will begin removing the beacons, and replacing them with the standard black on white, regulatory signage within the next week or so.
Currently there is not budget available to replace the flashing beacons; however, the City, Anacortes School District, and the Safe Routes to Schools Committee can be on the lookout for other opportunities for similar but more modern signage in the future.