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ANSONIA — For seven minutes Sunday evening, this looked like it might be a shootout of an NVL football game, a back-and-forth show of playmaking offenses trading touchdowns.

Well, Ansonia’s defense and special teams put a stop to the back-and-forth pretty quickly. The Chargers’ offense made it a lot more “forth,” actually

After Holy Cross marched for a touchdown off the opening kickoff, Ansonia, ranked No. 8 in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll., shut down the Crusaders for the rest of the game, scored on its next four drives and beat Holy Cross 50-6 at Nolan Field.

“What changed defensively is our energy and how we came out,” said Ansonia junior lineman Ayden Mercer, who had at least a part in three sacks.

“The first drive wasn’t as active on defense, but as the game went along, we started realizing ... certain cadences. We realized, and we locked in for our team.”

After problems with its radio headsets forced Holy Cross to burn a time out before the first play from scrimmage, the Crusaders went 72 yards in seven plays. With those three sacks and a kneel-down costing them 25 yards, they netted only 53 yards the rest of the game.

What changed, coach Tom Brockett said, was “settling into their speed."

"The kid (Drew) Caouette is outstanding as a quarterback. (Marques Campbell) is tough. They give you some problems," Brockett said. "We made a couple of mistakes on first drive, but credit them. They did some good things early.”

Caouette completed his first nine passes, in fact. Campbell finished with seven catches for 95 yards and took a direct snap to punch in the first-drive touchdown from a yard out.

And that was about it. It did not help matters for Holy Cross that Ansonia recovered the kickoff after Machi Ingram (19 carries, 202 yards, four touchdowns) drove the Chargers down for their first score. Quintez Whittle made it 13-6 Ansonia. On the Crusaders’ next play, Mercer got in to sack Caouette, and Jacob Romanowski returned the fumble 20 yards.

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“I realized the tackle was stepping too much,” Mercer said. “I juked him out, swim move, and Big Red almost got a touchdown.”

Holy Cross fell to 4-2. The losses, to NVL blue bloods Ansonia and Naugatuck, are by a combined 92-13. But the Crusaders sit seventh in the Class M points standings with the top eight qualifying for the CIAC playoffs, and none of their four remaining opponents has a winning record.

Ansonia has Class S playoff contenders Oxford and Woodland still on the dance card as well as the annual Thanksgiving showdown with Naugatuck, this year at Nolan Field. The defending champion Chargers, winners of 19 in a row, sit second to Bloomfield in Class S.

Player of the Game

It could be Machi Ingram most weeks – 19 carries, 202 yards, four touchdowns, this feels like a recording – so let’s give a shout to the defense with Ayden Mercer, in on three sacks, the first of which gave the Chargers a short field for their third touchdown in the first quarter.

Going Pink

Ansonia wore pink for cancer awareness and honored Denice Hunt before the game. Hunt, a longtime presence in the town and school communities, is fighting cancer herself. Her late husband, Jack, was Brockett’s predecessor and had the team’s record for coaching wins before Brockett passed him earlier this year.

“The Hunt family has been one of the great families of Ansonia,” Brockett said.

“She’s as classy and as sweet of a lady as you’ll ever find. She’s been a second mother to so many young kids growing up in this community for a long, long time. She loves working in the school system, she loves Ansonia football, and we love her.”

Quotable

“We have to improve our energy level when we come out: 50-6 is still an impressive score, but we need come out more aggressively.” —Ansonia lineman Ayden Mercer

Ansonia 50, Holy Cross 6

ANSONIA — What do you get when you graduate two all-state offensive linemen? For one day, at least, if you’re Ansonia, you get 415 yards on the ground in your opener, and you get senior Machi Ingram three long touchdown runs.

“At the beginning of the year, we had no idea who our tackles were going to be,” center Brendan Lynch said after the defending Class S football champions opened with a 45-13 win over Gilbert/Northwestern/Housatonic on Thursday night at Nolan Field.

“Those two guys stepped up. They’ve been doing a good job in practice. They’ve just got to continue to get better.”

Those two guys for Ansonia, No. 7 in the preseason GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll, are junior Curtis Cenatus on the left, flanking left guard Ayden Mercer, and senior Thyrene Mwese on the right next to sophomore Jacob Romanowski.

“There were some young guys, but they told us they would step up, and they did,” said Ingram, who gained 241 yards on 18 carries. “They put in a great offseason, and that’s what they did.”

Coach Tom Brockett — whose 194 wins broke a tie with his predecessor, Jack Hunt, for the most in school history; he's 194-15 — said it’s still a work in progress replacing Tracy Ray and Alex Romanowski, who’ve gone from being Ansonia teammates to being UMass Dartmouth teammates.

“It took awhile, but they’ve come along,” he said.

Ingram scored three touchdowns. Shawn Richards scored twice on 12 carries with 109 yards. Quintez Whittle picked up 44 yards and a touchdown on three rushes. It was a fine start for a team replacing David Cassetti at running back.

“We have a great backfield. All three running backs are just, I can’t tell you,” Ingram said.

He scored on runs of 30, 50 and 55 yards.

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“Ansonia’s got a big, heavy line. They’ve got some fast backs. We’ve got to learn how to play that stuff a little better,” GNH coach Scott Salius said.

Ty DiVita caught a long pass from Nolan Risedorf to set up his own short touchdown run in the first quarter for the GNH co-op. Aiden Avenia broke free for a 54-yard third-quarter touchdown that cut the Chargers’ lead to 10 points. Ansonia came right back to score, forced a fumble on the kickoff and scored again.

Player of the Game

Ansonia senior Machi Ingram ran for 241 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.

Youth movement

GNH has 47 players on its roster, and 38 are freshmen and sophomores.

“It looked like both teams’ first game in the first half,” Salius said. “The second half turned around: Ansonia got it together and we really didn’t. They hit us, and our young team didn’t really respond as much as we wanted them to respond once they started hitting us.

“My takeaway from this game: The freshmen and sophomores got a pretty good experience of what the regular season is going to be going forward.”

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Quotable

“We were still getting yards, first downs. We weren’t getting shut down completely, but that’s not our game. We don’t want to take three plays to get first downs. We want to pound the ball, get in the end zone quick, especially a night like tonight, it’s so hot (90s and humid to start), try to get our guys off the field, get them some blows.” —Ansonia senior lineman Brendan Lynch

ANSONIA 45, GNH 13

SEYMOUR — Coe Pond Dam, a secondary dam on the same property as the Kinneytown Dam in Seymour, is in such disrepair that, if not addressed, it poses “an immediate threat to public safety with the potential for loss of human life and property damage,” according to an inspection report received last week by the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

Rick Dunne, NVCOG executive director, told Hearst Connecticut Media that the volume of water that would be released in a “catastrophic breach” would be about 40 acres of water averaging 15 feet deep.

The report, commissioned as part of the Kinneytown Dam Removal Project, determined the dam is in poor condition and should be reclassified as a “high hazard,” according to a statement from NVCOG, a regional planning agency consisting of 19 member communities.

“If Coe Pond Dam were to fail, it would threaten the safety of the adjacent Metro North Waterbury Branch commuter rail line,” states the report, which was delivered to the organization on March 6.

According to a statement from the regional planning agency, “NVCOG notified relevant agencies of the concern in 2023 and commissioned an independent safety inspection to assess the condition and safety risk of Coe Pond Dam."

Following an inspection by Gomez and Sullivan Engineers, the report detailed numerous deficiencies in the Coe Pond Dam, any one of which could lead to a breach at any time, according to NVCOG. The report called for the water level in Coe Pond to be lowered as soon as possible to reduce the risk of dam failure.

“A breach would inundate and damage the adjacent commuter rail line with the potential for loss of human life and property,” according to the NVCOG statement.

The Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank Inc. is looking to acquire the dam property and — with NVCOG — to remove the long-dilapidated dam and restore the connection between the upper Naugatuck River and Long Island Sound.

The inspection report, needed before the land bank's acquisition of the property, questions Coe Pond Dam’s structural integrity, stating that if the situation is not quickly addressed, there is “an immediate threat to public safety with the potential for loss of human life and property damage.”

The NVCOG has notified Kinneytown Hydro Inc., owner of the dam facility, and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection of the situation.

Attempts to contact DEEP officials were unsuccessful.

Because the lank bank has not yet acquired the property, NVCOG cannot lower the water level, although DEEP has emergency authority to safeguard the public, according to NVCOG.

Inspectors stated there is significant vegetative growth on the dam, beaver activity, erosion and undermining, and evidence of overtopping.

“Lack of instrumentation to monitor water levels means there is no ability to provide warning ahead of a breach event or notify the railroad and utilities,” the report states.

Kinneytown Dam, first built in 1845, is a federally regulated hydroelectric facility on the Naugatuck River consisting of two dams with non-functioning powerhouses in Seymour and Ansonia.

The NVCOG has been working with a coalition of partners to acquire and remove the non-operational dam.

Their goal in pursuing the project is to restore the river to its natural course, restore migratory fish passage, eliminate dam safety concerns, reduce up and down-stream flood risk, improve water quality, restore natural sediment flows and restore access to the Naugatuck River for residents and visitors, the regional regulatory agency states.

In 2023, NVCOG received a $15 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal Funding Opportunity under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund a project to acquire and remove Kinneytown Dam.

NVCOG is now working to acquire the Kinneytown Dam facility through the CTBLB, conduct necessary decommissioning, engineering and design and ultimately remove the dam.

Editor’s note: The inspection report cited in this story mistakenly said the Coe Pond Dam is in Seymour. It is not. The Coe Pond Dam referenced here is in Ansonia. This story was revised on March 13, 2024.

ANSONIA – The privately-owned Coe Pond Dam is at risk of failing and poses a threat to people and property, the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG) announced Monday.

A March 6 inspection report given to NVCOG ?“details numerous deficiencies” that could cause the dam to breach at any moment.

“A breach would inundate and damage the adjacent commuter rail line with the potential for loss of human life and property,” according to the NVCOG statement. ?“The report states in no uncertain terms that Coe Pond Dam is an imminent public safety threat and calls into doubt its structural integrity.”

The earth dam keeps water off the Metro-North commuter train tracks. Its failure would flood the tracks.

However, the threat to people beyond train commuters isn’t known because it hasn’t been studied, according to Rick Dunne, NVCOG’s executive director.

He said that type of data would be required if the dam’s owner filed an emergency response plan – but officials have complained the dam’s owner and previous owners have not done anything to address a long list of concerns.

The engineering report ?“recommends the water level in Coe Pond be lowered as soon as possible to reduce the risk of dam failure.”

To lessen the threat, the water level should be lowered, which will ease pressure on the dam. The water should be lowered between now and April, the report states.

Dunne said DEEP could order the dam’s owner to lower the water level or do it themselves if there is no response.

DEEP officials said they are currently exploring options, and readying an inspection of their own. DEEP last inspected the dam in August 2023. It showed no signs of breaching. The agency wants to see what’s changed. DEEP is also looking for a consulting engineer to determine next steps.

“DEEP is coordinating with CT DOT to arrange for an inspection of the dam as soon as possible,” DEEP spokesman Paul Copleman said in a prepared statement.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office said the senator is planning to write a letter this week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ?“asking them to review and take appropriate action.”

U.S Rep. Rosa DeLauro said the property should be transferred to NVCOG.

“(Dam owner) Kinneytown Hydro has been wholly negligent in its responsibilities, and that negligence has resulted in both ecological damage and very serious safety concerns,” DeLauro said. ?“I stand ready to work with both state and federal agencies to do whatever necessary to safeguard the public.”

What’s The Coe Pond Dam?

The Coe Pond Dam in Ansonia is an earthen dam. It is one of two dams in the Kinneytown Hydroelectric Project. The Kinneytown Dam (in Seymour), on the Naugatuck River, is the other.

The March 6 inspection report was authored by Gomez and Sullivan Engineers. It points out 11 deficiencies at the dam, ranging from obvious erosion problems to beaver activity.

“At any time, a tree and its root ball could topple, or animal burrows, roots, erosion or overtopping could lead to a breach of the Coe Pond dam inundation of the railway,” the report states.

The Coe Pond Dam is owned by the Kinneytown Hydro Company, which in turn is owned by Trimaran LLC. An email and voicemail seeking comment were sent to Tim Carlsen, Trimaran’s listed contact, which were not returned.

Dunne said that Trimaran had not responded to communications from state or federal officials since taking ownership of the dam from Hydroland Inc. in 2023.

State Rep. Kara Rochelle said she was briefed by DEEP on the situation on Monday.

Rep. Rochelle said officials from DEEP received the NVCOG inspection report on Friday.

“Given the dam’s proximity to the Waterbury Line, DEEP and CTDOT are working together to arrange for an inspection of the dam as soon as possible, to determine the current condition of the dam. The results of this inspection will determine next steps,” Rochelle said.

Connecticut environmental groups along with officials from the local, state and federal levels have been lobbying for the Kinneytown Hydroelectric Project – including the Kinneytown Dam and the Coe Pond Dam, along with associated abandoned buildings – to be removed.

The project to remove the dams began in 2022 with an application for grant funding from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The application cited longstanding concerns about blight in Coe Pond, as well as the need to ease fish migration past Kinneytown Dam.

In 2022, saying the dams are bad for the environment, the federal government recommended the release of $15,000,000 to support NVCOG’s efforts to remove the two dams.

A ?‘fish ladder’ – a structure that allows fish to get around the dam – was installed at Kinneytown Dam in 1999, but, according to CT DEEP data cited by NVCOG, it hasn’t been effective in the decades since.

Native Naugatuck species including American shad and river herring aren’t able to traverse the ladder, the data says, and their populations are far below expected numbers upstream past the dam.

The canal, and Coe Pond by extension, catch the trash that flows down from the dams. In 2020 the trash situation was so bad a dog wandered onto the water and got stuck in the heap.

The March 6 inspection report found that up to four feet of sediment and debris had accumulated in some parts of the pond.

Reaction

Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s economic development director and grant writer, said Mayor David Cassetti’s administration spent Monday morning digesting the information from NVCOG.

O’Malley said copies of the inspection report were sent to the city’s engineering firm and an engineering firm for comment. Josh Shuart, the president of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen was provided with the report, as was Jared Heon, the city’s emergency management director.

Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said the dam is not in Seymour. It does not pose a direct threat to Seymour property owners, as any impact would be to the railroad or downstream.

However, Drugonis is frustrated by the dam owner’s lack of action.

“There have been issues for years and the owner isn’t doing anything about it,” Drugonis said.

Sen. Blumenthal said a ?“swift resolution” is needed.

“Dam safety is vitally important. I encourage state and local officials to work together to immediately address this urgent issue and protect public safety and critical infrastructure,” Blumenthal said.

Two Ansonia residents interviewed by The Valley Indy who live near Coe Pond both said there should be more information about the Coe Pond Dam and how Coe Pond will be impacted by the Kinneytown Dam removal.

NVCOG’s 2022 funding application states that it plans to ?“fill the canal and Coe Pond with sediment from behind Kinneytown Dam, and cap the site to create a recreational amenity and access to the river.”

Beth Petronchak has lived in Ansonia for 39 years. She can see Coe Pond from her backyard. She has concerns about the plans to remove the Kinneytown Dam, specifically an application that she said shows contaminated sediment removed from the Kinneytown Dam will be deposited and capped in Coe Pond.

“I find it ironic that Coe Pond Dam has been deemed ?“unsafe” in the wake of the Kinneytown Dam project,” Petronchak said in an email to The Valley Indy.

She said the government has not done enough to explain the plans for Coe Pond to people along Kathy Lane, Hubbell Avenue and Sunset Drive. She was specifically concerned about the impact on wildlife.

“Why doesn’t NVCOG look into restoring Coe Pond Dam? I am guessing it would come with a hefty price tag, though the $15 million to remove Kinneytown Dam and destroy Coe Pond is nothing to sneeze at,” she said.

Eddie Jones, who also lives on Kathy Lane, echoed Petronchak’s concerns about transparency. He said he has to rely on checking NVCOG’s website for updates.

“I just would love to see a little bit more information going out to the community about it,” Jones said. ?“Especially seeing that it appears, from what they post, the timeline of these things is coming fairly soon.”

Dunne said NVCOG, in partnership with Save the Sound, is still on track to begin the dam removal in 2025 in line with the project’s proposed timeline. He said environmental and sediment assessments will be completed this spring.

Responding to resident concerns about transparency, Dunne said information about the project is available on NVCOG’s website and that public hearings would occur once engineers give NVCOG design plans for the removal.

The team working on the dam removal is currently hiring a community liaison and will host an informational session regarding the position on Tuesday, March 12. The registration link for that event is here.

A report from NBC Connecticut is embedded below.

The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments recently received an inspection report that “identified deficiencies at the Coe Pond Dam that, if not addressed, pose an immediate threat to public safety with the potential for loss of human life and property damage,” according to officials.

The report came as part of the Kinneytown Dam Removal Project, according to Rick Dunne, executive director, and Aaron Budris, director of environmental planning, for the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments. The officials said the report determined the “secondary dam on the property is in poor condition.”

“Kinneytown Dam, currently owned by Kinneytown Hydro Inc., is a federally regulated hydroelectric facility on the Naugatuck River consisting of two dams with non-functioning powerhouses in Seymour and Ansonia, the officials said in an email. “The NVCOG, representing 19 municipalities in west-central Connecticut, has been working with a coalition of partners to acquire and remove the non-operational” dam.

The officials said the goals are:

The council is working to acquire the Kinneytown Dam facility, through the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, Inc. “conduct necessary decommissioning, engineering, and design, and ultimately remove the dam,” the officials said in the email.

Flooding causes partial dam break in Norwich, evacuation of residents

The council had received a $15 million grant in 2023 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal Funding Opportunity under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to acquire and remove Kinneytown Dam, the council officials noted.

“As part of the due diligence related to the acquisition of the facility by the CTBLB, it was discovered during field investigation that Coe Pond Dam was in poor condition,” the council officials said. “If Coe Pond Dam were to fail, it would threaten the safety of the adjacent Metro North Waterbury Branch commuter rail line. NVCOG notified relevant agencies of the concern in 2023 and commissioned an independent safety inspection to assess the condition and safety risk of Coe Pond Dam.”

Findings

“The report states in no uncertain terms that Coe Pond Dam is an imminent public safety threat and calls into doubt its structural integrity. Detailed inspection revealed deficiencies including significant vegetative growth on the dam, beaver activity, erosion and undermining, and evidence of overtopping,” the officials said in the statement. “Lack of instrumentation to monitor water levels means there is no ability to provide warning ahead of a breach event or notify the railroad and utilities. The report argues that although the dam is currently classified as having significant hazard potential, it should be reassigned as high hazard.”

The council notified Kinneytown Hydro Inc., “of the need to immediately mitigate this threat to public safety. Because the CTBLB has not yet acquired the property, NVCOG does not have the ability to act on the report’s recommendation of lowering the water level.”

The council also notified the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “which has emergency authority to safeguard the public by taking immediate action, as it did with the Fitchville Pond Dam in January,” the officials said.

Emails seeking comment were sent to Kinneytown Hydro Inc.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Media Relations Manager Paul Copleman said Monday, “DEEP is aware of the report regarding the Coe Pond Dam in Seymour. DEEP is reviewing the report and is working with federal and state partners to determine next steps.

“Unlike the Fitchville Pond Dam, the Coe Pond Dam is regulated under a license exemption by the Federal Energy Regulatory Authority (FERC) and is likewise privately owned,” Copleman said in an email. “And given the dam’s proximity to the Waterbury rail line, DEEP is working together with the CT Department of Transportation (CT DOT) to ensure the safe condition of this dam.

Copleman said In October 2023, DEEP and CT DOT alerted FERC to concerns over the dam, following an August 2023 inspection. He said DEEP “is seeking an update from FERC to ascertain: 1) what if any response has been taken by the owner since receiving that letter and 2) what if any action FERC is planning in response to this report.”

“DEEP is coordinating with CT DOT to arrange for an inspection of the dam as soon as possible. This inspection will attempt to determine how conditions may have changed since DEEP, CT DOT, FERC, and NVCOG inspection in August 2023,” Copleman said, in the email. “In addition, DEEP is seeking to engage a consulting engineer to determine what actions may be able to reduce the risk to the rail infrastructure.”

The council said the report’s findings delayed the Kinneytown Dam Removal Project, “as the entity slated to acquire the property – the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, Inc. (CTBLB) – is unable to do so unless this public safety threat is first addressed.”

Also, that CTBLB and NVCOG “intend to work with the dam owner, DEEP, DOT, FERC and its other agency partners to mitigate this immediate threat to public safety.”