'Rohnert Park' misspelled on sign along Highway 101

Rohnert Park may proclaim itself the Friendly City, but that doesn't mean it's easy to spell the 50-year-old town's name.

A large Caltrans sign alongside Highway 101 outside Cotati misspells the name of the county's third-largest city, turning Rohnert Park into "Ronhert Park."

The brain-teasing typo caught the eye of Jan Kirby as she drove from her job in Petaluma to her Rohnert Park home.

"An &‘n' and an &‘h' going by at 55 mph could be the same," said Kirby, who works for a wine fermenting equipment company. "You think, &‘Nah, I didn't see that.'"

But sure enough, the next day she took a closer look and saw that the "h" had slipped from third to fourth position. She then alerted a Press Democrat editor of the mistake.

"I chuckle every time I see that sign," Kirby said.

It's unclear how long the error has been posted on the grass embankment, where thousands of drivers stream past every day as they head north into Cotati.

"Oh no," said Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus when a reporter alerted him of the error Tuesday.

He didn't know when the sign was installed and said he was "tracking that down."

Haus said typos on highway signs do occur, "but it doesn't happen with any kind of regularity."

Last year, the agency spent $1,445 to replace the Steele Lane exit sign hanging over Highway 101 in Santa Rosa. The sign, which read "Steel Lane," misspelled the name of the road, which was named for Santa Rosa farmer Frank Steele.

Taxpayers won't be on the hook to pay for this sign's replacement, said Pat Barnes, Rohnert Park's deputy city engineer.

"This one is on the contractor. Taxpayers won't pay anything," Barnes said.

Ghilotti Construction Co. is managing the Highway 101 widening project and worked with a subcontractor for the highway signs, said Seana Gause, a project manager with the Sonoma County Transportation Authority.

The company is required to replace signs with typos as part of the contract, said Gause, who said she was tracking down which company handled the signs.

"I just heard about it today, and I drive past it regularly myself," Gause said Tuesday.

Even Rohnert Park Mayor Jake Mackenzie, who pays close attention to the number of signs alerting drivers they're approaching his city, said he noticed the sign but not the typo.

The mistake is not uncommon, Mackenzie said. People from outside Sonoma County frequently switch the "n" and the "h," he said.

"It's difficult to run a spell check with Rohnert," Mackenzie said.

The city was named after the Rohnert family, which lived on the Central California coast but ran a prominent seed farm on about 2,700 acres that became Rohnert Park. The city was incorporated in August 1962.