Piner High sound barrier irks neighbors

Friday night lights have arrived at Santa Rosa’s Piner High School.

Now comes the wall.

And neighbor Bob Pinelli is none too happy about it.

The Quail Hollow Drive resident said the school has begun erecting a 10-foot-tall cement sound barrier between his backyard and its athletic stadium, a foot behind his fence.

It comes about two months after Piner installed six controversial lights as part of a long-awaited project to allow night games.

“Why would we want a wall?” said Pinelli, a former youth coach who has lived in his home nearly 30 years. “It’s idiotic.”

The motive was unclear. And school officials wouldn’t talk about it.

Principal Timothy Zalunardo declined Monday to comment, referring calls to a district spokeswoman who did not respond to questions about the wall.

Another neighbor, Hickock Court resident Bill Graham, guessed school officials thought a wall would block the din of games, marching bands and starter pistols. But he said the barrier will be too short to accomplish that. It just messes up his view.

“That’s kind of ridiculous,” said Graham. “A sound wall would have to be 20- to 30-feet high. That would be a waste of money.”

Both the wall and the lights are part of a yearslong effort to give Piner what other schools have - a lighted field. For years, Piner teams have played home events in daylight only.

After much planning and public meetings, the lights went up around Thanksgiving, just missing the football and soccer seasons. They are expected to get their game-time debut when football resumes in the fall.

Neighbors had mixed feelings about them. Pinelli likes the LED strobes atop the 50- to 60-foot poles. But others, like Robert Engert, another Hickcock Court resident whose house also backs to the field, finds them offensive.

“People can look into my house from the bleachers,” Engert said.

However, Pinelli said his neighbors are united in opposition to the wall. He told district officials his feelings last year and they appeared to listen.

Then, one morning last week, workers appeared outside his fence and began installing pillars to hold the barrier’s concrete slabs.

He said he would get a lawyer and seek a court injunction to halt construction.

“It’s supposedly for us but we don’t want it,” Pinelli said. “We made our voices clear when they had their meeting a year ago.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @ppayne.