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Little Falls Library has new Executive Director By Dave Warner
is a feel here.”
The Little Falls Public Library has hired Julia Yardley as its new Executive Director. Yardley is an Ilion native who graduated from Central Valley Academy in 2019.
Yardley says she always felt like she would end up here, and her parents were like, ‘OK, you can do whatever.’
“I’ve been in Little Falls ever since I could drive. I came down here every day to go to Ol’ Sals. I’d write poetry, read a book, and present poetry when they had the open mic nights down there,” she said.
“Nobody usually stays in this area, but I said I’m going to do it.”
Growing up, she always wanted to be in the military, and that’s what she ended up doing. “I enlisted when I was 17 through my parents in the Army National Guard. I wanted to be an intel analyst, but they said, She said that she loved no, we don’t have that antique shopping here, position open. You’re and when asked what going to be a geospatial drew her here all the time, engineer.” she said, “The location itself. It was like calming She went into mapmaking. when I came here. Ilion is “I’m a mapmaker in the nice, but it doesn’t have Army—42nd Infantry. I’ll that look and feel. There be getting out in 2025.
Photo by Dave Warner - Julia Yardley has been hired as the new Executive Director of the Little Falls Public Library.
That’s the end of my sixyear contract period.”
Little Falls. “I really liked working at the Library. I started as a summer Yardley has loved her youth worker - helping time in the military, but kids with the summer the actual job, not so reading program. Then, much. “I’m doing a lot of they hired me at the other things, but I’m not Village for the Library as making maps. I’d rather a Page.” be doing that.” Yardley was playing field She started working at hockey and softball for the Ilion Library in 2017 school at the time, and when she was 16. It was they wanted to bump her also about the same time hours up. “I ended up that she started coming to with some time in my
schedule, and they put me on the desk, and I stayed with it.”
here to live, but my career path wasn’t going to take me here,” he said.
back to this part of the country, but there’s not really a big university. Between Syracuse and Albany, there are some colleges, but that didn’t work out, so I got a job in Ohio, and that’s where I went.”
His first job out of college was in sales and advertising at an agency. The second job was becoming president of an agency when the existing president stepped down. “I kind of envisioned that I’d be president of the company one day, but it wasn’t anything I was thinking about a lot. I was still pretty young.”
Photo by Dave Warner - Mike McCarthy has started a company called Native Son Consulting, which aims to help Little Falls businesses succeed.
Native Son - Comes back - to Give Back By Dave Warner
businesses.
Mike McCarthy has done a lot in his life, but now he’s ready to give back by creating a company called Native Son Consulting, which aims to provide no-cost business growth and strategy consulting for owners of Little Falls
He said, “I was born here in 1957. My parents were from the area. My mom graduated from St Mary’s. We moved around a bit, but I moved back here in 61.” McCarthy said that it’s
not until you leave and see other places and get older that you start to appreciate more and more about how and where you came from, and how it has made you who you are. “I’ve always been interested in coming back
Leading the agency at such a young age caused him to really think about what he wanted to do with his life. He ended up taking a career survey that told him he was just where he should be. “But I wasn’t enjoying it, and so upon further reflection, I realized I needed to make a career change.” So, he went to grad school, got his PhD and became a professor. “I really wanted to come
In 2019, she went to Fort Leonard Wood, a U.S. Army training installation in the Missouri Ozarks, for nine months and then came back. “I said, can I have my job back? I’m back now.” The
thing
she
loved
Please See LIBRARY Page 2
He continued to return to the area to visit family, trying to be here two to three times a year. “As I was approaching retirement, I realized I’d have a lot more time on my hands, and we could spend more time up here, so we started looking for a place,” he said.” McCarthy said they weren’t looking for anything too crazy and found the right place in 2020 and bought it. “I knew that once my dad passed, I probably wouldn’t make it up here very often unless I bought something.” “My wife likes it here, so Please See NATIVE Page 3
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