Bucs fan fights his cannon fine

A Largo man, who celebrated the Bucs with cannon blasts at his home, argues against the $156 noise citation.

By DAVE SCHEIBER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 7, 2002

Another volley has been fired in an ongoing dispute over a cannon fired by a Tampa Bay Bucanneers fan, propelling the matter from a Largo neighborhood into a Pinellas County courtroom. Avid Bucs fan Carl Biamonte used to celebrate touchdowns and victories by igniting small cannons in his front lawn, to the dismay of next-door neighbors Preston and Hazel Nall.

The Nalls complained to the county's environmental management office that the shotgun-like explosions exceeded allowable decibel levels. They meticulously documented every blast, hoping that authorities would silence Biamonte's cannons.

This season, the cannons went silent. Sort of.

Instead of firing the cannons, Biamonte played blaring tape-recordings of cannon shots through speakers on his lawn and picnic table, the Nalls say.

"He aimed them right at our house," Preston Nall said. "He was playing that cannon tape about eight times for every touchdown."

So the Nalls contacted the environmental office, which sent a field agent to record the noise near Biamonte's property line.

"They had to come out three different games," Nall said.

Two tests were unsuccessful, but on Sept. 22, the inspector concluded that the sound exceeded the legal limit, Nall said.

Biamonte was given a citation, which he contested at a pretrial hearing Friday. Another hearing will be Jan. 24. Meanwhile, the Nalls say, the cannon tape has not played in the past three weeks.

Code enforcement administrator Bob Mortoro, who said the citation was for $156, explained that the source of the noise was not the issue. "It's the decibel level of the noise recorded, whether it be the cannon, a DVD of the cannon, a videotape of the cannon, or all of you imitating a cannon."

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