Northeast Times Article - Beautician wants to lead merchant’s group

Beautician wants to lead merchant’s group

By Gary Strassberg

MAYFAIR – At last, the search for a new head honcho may be over for the Mayfair Merchants’ Association.

A local business owner has stepped forward to lead the group, which has been without a president since Rosemarie McMenamin stepped down from the position in September.

Lois Burak, the 27-year-old owner of Beauty Worx, at 7240 Frankford Ave., is hoping to supply a transfusion of new blood to the association’s leadership.

Although her presidency probably won’t become official until the merchants’ next meeting, which has yet to be set, Burak said she already has been contacted by several area business owners who offered their congratulations and support.

In fact, Burak noted, some of her fellow merchants were among the ones who suggested that she give the job a try in the first place.

“I think they’ve seen how resourceful I am with my own business,” she reasoned. “I mean, I’ve had to start a business twice from like next to nothing, and build it. I have a lot of enthusiasm.

“I’ve always been one of those people who wanted to see change, and was really frustrated with the way things have been going the last couple years,” she added. “I love this neighborhood, and there’s so much potential, but it’s just not being used to its fullest.”

A former member of the merchants’

association, Burak said her interest in the group wanted during the difficult process of relocating her business from Cottman Avenue to its present location. Now, however, Burak believes that she’s ready and able to make a full-time commitment to the betterment of the Mayfair business community, as president of the merchants’ association.

‘I’m willing to take it on, and I’ll do the best I can,” she insisted. “Believe it or not, I have a lot of time because I’ve got the most wonderful staff right (here)… and they’re going to be a great help to me.”

Some of the group’s veteran members also have offered to help the group’s new president get adjusted. Burak noted, Kevin Kologinsky, a Frankford Avenue attorney and former president of the merchant’s association, who she met with on Dec. 2, is one of the people who offered support.

“Kevin is going to be a major player in helping me,” Burak said. “There’s no way I could do it without his help, because he’s very knowledgeable with the avenue. I was very, very impressed.”

For the last few months, Kologinsky had tried to find a Mayfair business owner who had both the desire, and the time, to lead the merchants’ association.

“A lot of people were interested, but when they found out how much work it involved, they were overwhelmed by it,” he noted.

Now, the attorney appears certain that the group has found its new president in Burak. “There’s no doubt, I don’t think, that she’ll be our president,” he said. “It’s terrific to see someone with so much energy. She’s got a lot of enthusiasm.”

Burak also seems to have a solid grasp of the problems that she will likely have to address with the merchants’ association – cleaning up trash and graffiti, monitoring zoning issues, filling vacant stores, and attracting more shoppers to the business district, to name several.

“I’m a big promoter of other businesses,” she said. “I try to do as much shopping on this avenue as possible. Not only is it convenient for me, but I also want to keep the money in Mayfair.”

Burak said she’s planning to spend the rest of the year familiarizing herself with the job, as well as the merchants in the community, and will get to work on the actual problems and issues in January.

For now, Burak is calling upon her fellow merchants to decorate their store windows this year, because the merchants’ association cannot afford to put up Christmas lights along Frankford Avenue, as it has in the past. As an incentive to do so, the owner of Woolworth’s, at 7310 Frankford Ave., is offering a 20-percent discount on holiday decorations to those who provide proof of their neighborhood merchant status, she noted.