In divided America, one rural area in northern N.Y. struggles to find common ground

Local government leader Gerry Delaney speaks at a community meeting in the Adirondack Park. Part of his message: "We have to come together." (Brian Mann/NPR)

Across the U.S., we live in an era when school board meetings often erupt into battlegrounds, where church congregations unravel over flashpoint issues of race and gender.

But a few weeks ago, when a conservative town councilman named Gerry Delaney spoke at a public meeting about environmental issues in New York's Adirondack Park, he sounded a very different tone.