When Paula Frazier, the owner of Paula at Rigaletto’s restaurant on Park Avenue in Weehawken, was notified by phone last month that she was going to receive an award from Hudson County government, she was confused.
“I thought they were asking me to cater the award ceremony or something,” she said. “I was dumbfounded, trying to get my head around what they were telling me. I was thinking ‘Well, what should I cook?’ ”
Frazier, along with fellow female businesswoman Belkys Tineo-Severino, owner of Belkys’ Beauty Salon in Weehawken, received the 2010 County Executive’s Award for Public Service, an honor that was given to businesswomen in conjunction with Women’s History Month back in March. Then, Weehawken Township honored the women late last month with a proclamation and a special ceremony at Weehawken’s Town Hall building.
“Weehawken is my life.” – Belkys Tineo-Severino
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The Dominican Republic-born Severino said she felt “almost famous” receiving her award in front of a large Hudson County crowd.
Frazier was moved, too.
“I appreciate [the award],” she said. “It gives me more incentive; it gave me a boost to keep providing a service to the town. It showed me that people are as much in love with this community as I am, and that anything we can do to help bring us together is good.”
Severino was so overcome by emotion at the township ceremony that the native Spanish-speaker could not address the audience in English.
“The problem was, I was very emotional,” she said later.
She said her daughter had submitted a short biography to the township, which was read aloud at the ceremony.
“When I listened to what she wrote, it was very emotional for me,” Severino said.
Long history
Severino’s salon has been open for business in the community for the past 26 years, making it the longest continuously open service business in Weehawken. She is almost always at the salon on Highwood Terrace, saying, “I only go to sleep [in North Bergen].”
For Severino, the people that she gets to meet through the salon mean the most to her. She remembered the late Dr. Schwarz, who was well loved in the community and lived only a few houses down from her salon.
“He was the no. 1 person in Weehawken to me,” she said.
She also remembered cutting a girl’s hair since childhood, doing the girl’s hair for her prom, then on her wedding day, and after she had her first child.
“It’s my life. It’s not just a job,” Severino said. “Everywhere I go, I know somebody.” She even joked about writing an autobiography.
“If I could write a book about this place,” she said, “I would have a lot of things to say.”
Kitchen beginnings
At the ceremony, Mayor Turner noted that Frazier’s restaurant is drawing people to the revitalized Park Avenue.
“It hasn’t always been easy to get people to Park Avenue,” he said.
“The township has always welcomed me with open arms,” Frazier said. “I get a lot of support.”
Frazier started her professional career in the kitchen, although in the early days it was with a mop and a broom in hand. Now she hangs a medal, which she received from the County, on her spice rack at home.
“The award means that someone has recognized my achievement and hard work, and that it has not gone unnoticed,” she said. “It means that I truly am a contributor to the well-being of my community.”
Sean Allocca can be reached at editorial@hudsonreporter.com