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Business Q&A -- Cathi Sackett Cathi Sackett, 49, is the president of Baroness Inc. of Medford, which operates Red Baron Restaurant, Lounge and Gift Shop at Medford's airport. The company also caters for United Airlines. She's a member of the National Federation of Business Owners and Women's Business Enterprise. Sackett and her husband of 30 years live in Medford. Their son Jacob, 25, works for a defense contractor in San Diego and Nathan, 22, is a student at Portland State. Q: What was the original appeal for operating an airport business? I was looking for a completely different challenge in my life. I graduated from SOSC in 1986 with a degree in psychology; I had worked in the legal business for 8 years, and I was bored with what I was doing. What I failed to realize was just how hard the restaurant business can be on a daily basis. I just started looking for a small business to buy and it did not seem to matter at the time what kind of business it was. Q: What is the most drastic change for firms operating at air terminals since Sept. 11? With reference to our businesses here at the airport, we had to remove plastic knives from the snack bar. and anything that could remotely be used as a weapon. In the gift shop we were asked to remove fingernail files, clippers, letter openers, corkscrews, many glass items and again, anything that remotely resembled a weapon. We even removed plastic children's play guns. Q: What were your primary concerns prior to recent events and what are they now? Prior to Sept. 11, our concerns were always for safety within the airport, and within the Air Operation Area; especially since we cater for United Airlines. The airport authority had requested that everyone with an airport badge begin coming to the authority to be re-badged commencing Sept. 1. That process was well under way when all this happened. I commend Mr. (Bern) Case, the airport director at Rogue Valley International, as he has always run a very tight ship at our airport. We always get high ratings from FAA inspections. My concerns after Sept. 11 have really not changed that much; we are more careful about who comes into our kitchen area, and we are not allowing any vendors to come through our back kitchen door; they all must come through the front, and park quite a ways from the airport. Having recently flown home from the East Coast, I was impressed with all the airports in this country doing their part to make it much, much safer to fly than before. Q: Which of the four aspects -- restaurant, lounge, catering and gift shop -- has undergone the most change because of regulation and security changes? By far, the catering end of our operation has had numerous changes to the operation. We had a conference call with United Airlines world headquarters on Sept. 12 for an hour and a half regarding new regulations for catering the airlines. They are very concerned with what happened and have implemented many new safety regulations to assure both the airlines and passengers that this will never happen again. We are happy to comply. Q: What are other people in your line of operation around the region and country doing to survive economically? I attended a chamber of commerce greeters' meeting Thursday, and everyone in this valley is feeling the loss of income, as consumers are still scared and grieving by what happened, and there is a lot of uncertainty about the future with war looming on the horizon. I encourage people to continue to keep their travel plans as flying to your destination has never been safer, in my opinion. I was very impressed (last) week by what I saw in four airports - Shenandoah Valley airport, Washington/Dulles airport, San Francisco airport and Medford airport. Q: How long will it take your business to bounce back from last week? Bouncing back from last week will totally depend on what the residents of the Rogue Valley decide to do. If they trust that it is safe to fly (as they should) then we will have a steady customer base. If they cancel their plans, or decide to put off future plans, say for Thanksgiving or Christmas, it will definitely hurt our business. The residents of the Rogue Valley should be very grateful they have jet service to this small community, and if folks do not support it, there is a slim chance Shuttle by United will have to pull out of this station. Obviously, they run numbers daily too, and the smaller markets may get pulled if people don't support their local airports. This is no big news at this point, as everyone has seen many airlines reporting severe losses, having dramatic layoffs and cutbacks. If we are all scared to trust our airlines, then these terrorists have accomplished what they had intended - not only to kill our masses, and destroy our property, but to cut to the heart of the American economy by scaring people not to live their lives in freedom. I say, how dare they try to intimidate us. Q&A appears Mondays. It provides local leaders a venue to address timely issues in the business community. To suggest a subject for this column, please contact business reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.