CHAPTER 5
CITY COUNCIL MEETING

On Thursday evening, Avani, Krish, and Maddy arrived with Dad to City Hall. They were ten minutes early to the city council meeting. They stood outside the chamber.

“The skate park discussion is the second item on the agenda,” said Dad. “I am going to go in now. You can wait here. We’ll call you in when it’s time.”

Krish put in his earbuds. Maddy started to bite her nails. Avani took deep breaths, trying to relax. But it was no use. She sat and looked over the list. All the while, her leg bounced.

Soon, Dad was waving them in through the glass door. In the chamber, seven council members sat behind a long desk. They all had nameplates in front of them, but Avani didn’t take the time to read them.

Instead, she glanced from face to face. The council members all looked friendly enough. Well, maybe not the lady with the polka-dot dress. Her lips were squeezed shut, and she tapped a pen on her notepad.

Avani quickly glanced away. She scanned the audience instead. It wasn’t a big crowd. Only five people sat in the chairs. But Avani was still nervous to start speaking.

“Whenever you’re ready,” said the city council leader, a gray-haired man named Kim.

Avani cleared her throat. “Hi, my name is Avani Patel. This is my brother, Krish, and my friend Maddy.”

Krish nodded.

Maddy waved. “Hi!” she said a little too loudly.

“We think it would be really cool to have a skate park in Oakdale,” Avani said. “We think a lot of people would use it. We thought about what features we think it should have. We wrote them on this list.”

Then, Avani read the list.

The council members were quiet.

Did they want more? Avani wondered. What should we say?

She looked over at her dad.

“Maybe you can explain all the features, so that everyone can understand what they are and why they would be valuable to put in,” said Dad. “Why don’t you start with the oak leaf sculpture? Why did you include that feature?”

“Well, since we live in Oakdale,” said Avani, “and the city symbol is an oak leaf, we thought it would be nice to showcase it. Plus, skaters often make videos of their tricks and post them on social media. The oak leaf would be a unique thing. So, soon, people from all over would know that Oakdale has a skate park.”

“Are you suggesting that a skate park may help drive tourism?” asked Kim.

“Um…,” Avani said.

Dad rephrased the question. “Do you think people will come from outside of Oakdale to use the park?”

“Yes,” Krish said. “We do. We drive almost fifty miles to the one in Longmont. If this skate park is different, people from other towns would probably come here too. That would be good for businesses like the Sandwich Shop. Skaters are always hungry.”

“Good point,” said Kim.

Krish, Avani, and Maddy took turns talking about the different features on their list. They answered questions from the city council.

The council members seemed more and more interested in the skate park. Until the lady in the polka-dot dress spoke. Avani read her nameplate. Rita.

“You have brought up many good points,” Rita said, looking at her notepad. “But the question still remains. Is the cost of putting in a skate park worth it? I am not sure more than a handful of people would use it.”

Some council members nodded. Avani looked at their nameplates. Angela. Ned.

“Of course, we would love to do everything everyone wants,” said Angela. “But that’s not possible. We need to weigh each idea very carefully.”

“I agree. We need more time to decide if investing in a skate park is the best choice for all of Oakdale,” said Ned. “But thank you for coming in and sharing your ideas.”

Then Rita said, “We hope that you all will come to other meetings and continue to stay involved! Local government is for everyone.”

Avani, Krish, and Maddy smiled politely and walked out of the room.

“It was going so well,” said Maddy.

“Until polka-dot lady spoke,” added Avani.

“Now what?” asked Krish.

No one had any answers.