The freshly elected supervisor said her goal is to be “approachable and accessible.”

Since she deployed in June 2021, she’s kept in touch with people back home through email, phone, social media and by reading the Enterprise every morning. But she missed being around town, getting the universal vibe from residents by bumping into them around town.

She said some people didn’t even realize she wasn’t in the country — phones and email are common ways of communication nowadays. But she had to delay some conversations and meetings until she returned.

Mallach now has a list of community leaders she wants to meet face-to-face. But she also wants to meet with anyone from the town who wants to talk.

Harrietstown Supervisor Jordanna Mallach holds the American flag which flew outside her base in Kosovo on the last day of her deployment there. Mallach returned back to town, and the job she was elected to while overseas, earlier this week. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Cake hour

When Mallach was in Germany, she said she got to experience a sweet cultural tradition — cake hour in the afternoon. It’s a tradition she wants to bring here to Harrietstown.

Before she left, when she announced her campaign for supervisor, Mallach had said she wanted to introduce a weekly “office hours” event with an open door policy for anyone to attend and speak with her about town issues. Now, she’s planning to do this over cake

“Fridays at 3 p.m. will be cake hour here are the Harrietstown Town Hall,” Mallach declared.

She’s a skilled baker — known for bringing treats to town board meetings before the coronavirus pandemic — so some of these cakes she’ll make herself. Others will come from local businesses.

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What was Mallach doing in Kosovo?

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Mallach was deployed to Kosovo with the Vermont Army National Guard as part of Task Force Mansfield, a mission to maintain a “safe and secure environment” in the country.

She worked in the Kosovo Force Headquarters with soldiers from around the world. Mallach’s role was in logistics and supporting troop-contributing nations in NATO.

Working two jobs made for long days, especially since Harrietstown is five hours behind Kosovo. She’d finish up work at 6 p.m. — 1 p.m. our time — and immediately start checking her Harrietstown email.

The bimonthly town board meetings made for long nights. They started at midnight, her time, and she’d work until 2 or 3 a.m. before getting some sleep.

“I felt tired but I don’t think I ever really felt burnt out because they were both things that I was very passionate about,” Mallach said. “I wanted to be successful.

“I’m not convinced I could have sustained it much longer,” she added with a laugh, “but burnt out to me is when you don’t want to do something anymore, and I never felt that way.”

Mallach gave credit to the town hall staff and her “active board” for success in her absence.

“We wouldn’t have accomplished anything if it weren’t for Beth (Bevilacqua) and Sabrina (Harrison) and Judi (McIntosh) and (Theresa Callahan),” she said.

She met with Bevilacqua and Harrison once every week.

And while she was overseas, she was brainstorming ways to better her job as town supervisor when she returned back home.

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Other goals

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On Tuesday, Mallach was talking with Bevilacqua about ways to trim costs.

“I think it’s the mother in me, I’m always looking for ways to save money,” Mallach said.

For example, the town has three sanitation contracts — for the town hall, airport and Dewey Mountain. The sanitation company didn’t realize they were all connected, and Mallach said the town could get a reduced price on their contracts. Because they’re a big client, the town has more negotiating power, she said.

Mallach said saved funds could be spent on introducing new youth or community programming.

She also wants to introduce an employee appreciation program. When things go well, she pointed out, no one notices.

Mallach kept her eyes on the recent village election from afar, in which Jimmy Williams was elected mayor, Kelly Brunette won reelection to the village board and Matt Scollin joined the board as a new trustee. Mallach said all three mayoral candidates reached out to speak with her. She was calling in to the town hall via Councilwoman Ashley Milne on election night.

Mallach wants to be more connected with the village and sees this new leadership as an opportunity to improve their collaboration.

Mallach said transparency was a visibly big issue in the race, and one she wants the town to address, too. On top of regularly speaking with town residents, she plans to update the town website and keep offering board meetings over Zoom.

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Trying to help families amid conflict

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As U.S. troops finished withdrawing from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban rapidly took over the country. Mallach was deeply connected with Afghan people who had assisted the U.S. military, who were trying to evacuate the country, fearing retribution by the Taliban.

Mallach had served in Afghanistan in 2010 as a brigade supply and services officer, and last year, many people from the companies she had contracted with reached out for help getting special immigration visas to leave the country. They needed letters from their contract officer representative — that was Mallach.

“They served the United States. They did so honorably. They did so at risk to their families. In some cases they provided us with vital supplies and services,” she said.

Mallach took on the work of calling senators, congresspeople, non-profit organizations and spending hours on hold with the State Department to try to help those who had helped the U.S.

“I tried my best to assist them. Ultimately, I was unsuccessful, which was really heartbreaking to me and really frustrating,” she said. “I wasn’t able to get them out before the initial push.”

Why were U.S. allies left behind?

“That is way above my pay grade,” Mallach said.

There were many factors and decisions made at high levels.

Most of these families still live in Afghanistan, where they face retaliation and a country facing economic despair and famine under an oppressive regime.

Mallach said one family she knows made it to Pakistan, fleeing across the border and currently awaiting proper immigration papers.

But for the rest, life under the Taliban is hard, and they have no flights to leave on. Costs have skyrocketed, there are supply shortages and banking is inconsistent.

“Opportunities that existed for the next generation are gone now,” Mallach said. “It’s not good.”

When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, Mallach again asked, “How can we help?” She was serving with Ukrainian soldiers and used her connections to get tapped into humanitarian supply lines in Europe.

She figured she’d turn to Facebook to take up a small collection to buy more supplies. The response was “completely overwhelming.”

“I never envisioned the outpouring of support,” Mallach said.

On March 12, a truck filled with an estimated 35,000 euros in materials — 300 cans of baby formula, 500 boxes of baby food, clothes, 250 packages of diapers, 60 blankets, 20 field beds, flashlights, batteries, chargers and socks — went out en route to Ukraine. The response was so massive, Mallach realized they needed to buy in bulk. Instead of clearing out pharmacies and stores in Kosovo, she was working indirectly with distributors.

Mallach said another truck will head out later this month with around 20,000 euros worth of supplies.

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Looking to the future

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Mallach said this will likely be her last deployment.

“In the Army you never say ‘never,'” Mallach said.

But she hopes she will be here for good. Today, Mallach will celebrate her anniversary with her husband, Joe Gladd. It will be the first one in four years when she hasn’t been stationed on an Army base somewhere.

She’s also looking forward to attending community events again.

“During Winter Carnival I was sad,” Mallach said.

She found it amusing trying to explain Carnival and the Ice Palace to her fellow soldiers from around the world. Their response was often, “What? Why?”

Mallach said next Winter Carnival, she’s hoping some of the soldiers she worked with can visit and experience it themselves.

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