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“No, you don’t have to leave the board,” Claire insisted. “You can recuse yourself from everything related to that site.”

Milne did just that. And in his Pfizer role he mapped out in more specific terms what Pfizer needed from the state in order to say yes to New London. Pfizer wanted nearby Fort Trumbull renovated and turned into an attractive state park. It wanted the city’s sewage treatment upgraded and capped to contain the odor. And it wanted the scrap-metal junkyard out of the picture entirely; the state should buy out the business or do whatever else was necessary to make it vanish.

The biggest demand came with a strong push from Claire: that money be set aside for the NLDC to assemble an additional ninety acres of real estate next door to the mill site for developing a five-star hotel, state-of-the-art conference center, office space, and upscale housing and shops to complement the Pfizer facility. Pfizer wanted the city to acquire the large naval base (thirty-two acres) and the properties in the residential neighborhood between it and the mill site (roughly sixty acres). The state would have to appropriate millions of dollars to the NLDC, which would in turn buy up all these properties, clearing the way for redevelopment in line with Pfizer’s wishes.

If the state agreed to this approach, Pfizer could then serve as the gateway to a renaissance in New London. But without the state’s willingness to help secure and redevelop the additional ninety acres, Pfizer would not come to the mill site.

“The notion that this could become a key unlocking piece already had been in discussion with the governor,” Milne later explained.

The terms and conditions left little room for misunderstanding. Claire made sure that the state understood that timing was critical. Milne didn’t want a new Pfizer facility surrounded by a perpetual construction site. To avoid this, Claire insisted everyone had to work fast, coining the phrase “Pfizer Time.”

Claire and Milne’s proposal was appealing to the Rowland administration. It certainly was not what Ellef had originally asked Jay Levin to help with, but by working in concert with Pfizer and the NLDC, the Rowland administration had the potential to get much faster results. And the idea of constructing new waterfront housing on the Thames apparently appealed to Ellef personally. In a memo, Claire wrote that Ellef had asked her to save him a condo: “Two bedrooms, two baths, ocean view.”

“His name,” Claire assured the state’s commissioner of economic and community development, “is on the list with numerous others who decided they wanted priority housing in the new New London.”

The governor pledged a strong state commitment and promised to come back with a written set of incentives that the state would be willing to provide Pfizer in exchange for its commitment to develop in New London.

Lloyd Beachy had never had aspirations of political power. The son of a Pennsylvania farmer, he joined the navy in the 1950s and became an intelligence officer specializing in naval aviation. After stints in the Pacific theater, Vietnam, and Hawaii, Beachy got assigned to the Pentagon. He finished his naval career at the Sound Lab at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. In the midst of the cold war, the navy figured out that its top scientists weren’t communicating with the intelligence community. Beachy served as a liaison between the two.

When he retired in 1979, Beachy and his wife, Sandy, decided to stay in New London. The small coastal city seemed like a great place to make a permanent home. They became involved in the local historical society and volunteered for all sorts of civic groups and initiatives. Their commitment to local causes didn’t go unnoticed. One day Beachy’s neighbor, a member of the city’s Democratic Committee, asked Beachy to run for local office. The Democrats had candidates for all the city-council seats except one. Reluctantly, Beachy agreed to fill the final spot.

The Democrats never expected Beachy to win; they just appreciated his willingness to fill the ballot spot. Even Beachy