DECEMBER 10, 2015: MACKAY’S older residents remain engaged with the community and want to have input into the long-term future of the region.I visited Resthaven on Quarry this morning, fulfilling a request sent via my survey for a personal visit to the facility.I was only too happy to pay a visit and discuss issues of the day with a room full of people, including Bill Sneyd, Edna Bradwell and Athol Byers, who remain very engaged with the long-term future of their community.There were some obvious questions about aged care but there was also a lot of concern about where our region is heading and what we are doing to create jobs and the economy of the future.Some of the residents could remember when the Urannah Dam (west of Calen) was first proposed.It has taken 40 years for a government to stop talking about it and put some money on the table to make projects like Urannah happen, including a $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Investment Fund.One of the residents this morning rightly pointed out that if they dam had been built 30 or 40 years ago we wouldn’t be so affected by dry conditions today.