Retired Trooper Makes the Cut in his New Career
After 24 years working as a state trooper, Pete Beratta finds a new niche in Marcellus
By David Figura

Pete Beratta put in 24 years as a New York state trooper and rose to the rank of investigator before deciding to retire at 48.
Since then, Beratta, now 58, has rewired his life and is enjoying a new career. He owns and runs Pete’s by the Park Barbershop in Marcellus.
“I went from one weapon to another. One job they gave me a gun. And now they give me a razor,” he joked.
Beratta, a sports enthusiast, is also a Division I football referee, a part-time job that each fall has him traveling 13 straight weekends up and down the East Coast, working Syracuse University and other ACC division games.
Why the early retirement from law enforcement?

“I was in my late 40s and decided enough was enough. I was doing undercover work that often had me working nights away from home. I figured I’d work at least one more year before moving on,” he said. “I was going to go for 25 years and had just eight months left.”
And then came the fateful night his father died from complications caused by congenital heart disease and diabetes. (“I was with him at the hospital when he passed,” Beratta said.)
Six hours later, his father-in-law, who was suffering from complications from Alzheimer’s disease, also died.
“I woke up that morning and asked my wife, ‘Did that really happen or was that a dream?’ I told her that somebody is telling me something. I don’t need to work for eight more months. I’m leaving now,” he said. “I took off two weeks for vacation and then took a few days to clean out my desk. I drove to Albany to sign some papers, turned in the keys to my car, my badge, my gun. I was done.”

He said he didn’t get pushback from his wife, Dena, about retiring. Dena, a yoga instructor, was working then at the Medical Center West in Camillus.
“I told him, though, that he had to find something else to do. He was too young to retire and just do nothing,” his 58-year-old wife said. “He wasn’t going to just chase me around the house all day.”
Their house was almost paid off. Their three kids were getting older. Beratta had an acceptable pension (though he got less because of his early departure) and he and his wife were covered for life by the state’s health insurance plan that he got as a retiring trooper.
His side hustle as a football referee started in 1991 with high school games. In 2006, he began doing Division I games, which paid better but involved much more traveling. He also had a gig running the shot clock at Syracuse University men’s and women’s basketball games, which he did from 2004 until 2018.
“I had one caveat, though,” Beratta said about retiring from his state job. “I had to take the first summer off. I wasn’t going to do anything. I just wanted to be sitting on the couch, sipping coffee when that first retirement check came.”
But he didn’t take that first summer off. Instead, he accepted a job as head of security for the then-Syracuse Chiefs, the local, Triple A baseball team. His son, Benny, then 14, became the team’s bat boy. Beratta held on to that part-time job for two more summers afterward.
Prior to retiring from the state, he had been mulling and discussing plans for a second career with his wife. He wanted to learn how to cut hair. At the time, the community where he lived lacked a barber. Two had died, the other one had called in quits and moved, he said.
“It was a need that needed to be filled,” he said.
Beratta did a little research and found out OCM BOCES didn’t offer barber classes, only cosmetology. “I didn’t want to cut women’s hair, only guy’s hair,” he said.
The closest barber school, Shear Ego, was more than an hour’s ride away in Rochester. Eager to get started, he sent in his down payment for tuition and started taking classes.
“Many of the students were as young as 18 with student loans. I was the grandpa in the class. I paid for everything up front,” he said.
Following two years of coursework, Beratta got his license to cut hair. The Berattas purchased a building on Slate Hill Road in Marcellus and set up a barbershop in front and a yoga studio for Dena in back, calling it the Slate Hill Wellness Center. Dena’s business is called Mandala Moon Yoga.
Beratta did his first haircut at his shop on Oct. 1, 2016. From the beginning, he said he steered away from doing “fancy” cuts on customers. “I’ve seen [young barbers] do that, but I don’t. I’m not artistic enough,” he said.
His barbershop, which he calls his “man cave,” has all sorts of personal and sports pictures and paraphernalia hanging on the walls. There’s a big screen TV, a pool table, a soft couch, a rocking chair, a pinball machine and a few cans of Guinness in the fridge in his office. The couple’s two dogs, Winnie, a border collie, and Chai, an Australian shepherd, roam about the building.
“I feel like I’m happy every day — cutting hair, refereeing, doing what I want to do,” he said.
Beratta said he stays fit by walking, jogging or hopping on a Peloton stationary bike he has at home.
“My health has been good and my wife keeps an eye on me and makes sure I eat healthy,” he said.
His daughter, Juliana, is a licensed massage therapist. “When I start having back issues, I give her a call to come tweak me,” he said.
Beratta said he uses people skills he learned from his state police job while cutting hair.
“I interview everybody. This is their 15-20 minutes,” he said. Conversations while they’re on the chair often include their latest joys and concerns in their personal and family lives. Beratta particularly likes to chat about football, often recapping or giving insights to customers about college games that he worked.
He said he gets a kick from quizzing kids in December about what they want “the big fella” to bring them for Christmas.
“They’ll sometimes tell me things they haven’t told their parents — and that’s with Mom or Dad sitting right there. I’ve been thanked several times by parents afterward for that information.”
Asked about his bucket list, Beratta pointed to a van outside in the shop’s parking lot, saying he and his wife are planning a road trip out to Montana this summer, camping along the way. The van, a vintage, 1990 VW Westfalia Camper, is equipped with two beds, along with a small kitchen, fridge and oven in the main part of the vehicle.
Dena said she “doesn’t get that mentality” of those who say they can’t retire because they have no idea what they would do afterward. “Go see the world. Travel,” she said. “I’m trying to see all the national parks and I’m dragging Pete along with me.”
Meanwhile, her husband has his sights on one day refereeing a major college football bowl game. “The Rose Bowl comes to mind. That’s the Big Daddy,” he said.
His advice to retirees — or anyone else for that matter — is simple.
“If you’re not happy, you have to do something to change that,” he said.