When it comes to knowledge about agriculture, being a hard worker or defending the taxpayer, those who knew Kosciusko County Councilman Mike Long refer to him.
Long, 64, of Etna Green, died unexpectedly Thursday evening in an accidental drowning on his property.
Current County Council President Tony Ciriello has known Long for about the last 30 years.
“I never had a chance to work with him until I came on the council,” Ciriello said. “Mike was always a hard worker, a focus-driven guy, but he was a friend and when he was your friend he was your friend forever.”
When Ciriello first joined the council, Long offered him some advice. It was Long last fall who encouraged Ciriello to run for council president for this year and supported him to do so.
“We served on a couple committees together and I learned a few things from him that I didn’t know when I first went on, as well as I did from other council members. But Mike really helped me learn a lot and encouraged me to run for president and kind of guided me on what that role was about, too,” Ciriello said.
He said Long’s knowledge about agriculture will be hard to replace on the council.
“That’s his life, his farming, so he knew that inside and out. Whoever ends up replacing him, I don’t know if they’ll have that experience or not, but that experience is very helpful especially when we’re dealing with a lot of things that could be coming down the pike like with solar farms or data centers or whatever the case may be. He understands the ag side of it and the land uses, so that’s going to be hard to fill,” Ciriello said.
He also stated that Long was a strong defender of the taxpayer.
“There’s no doubt about that because as a large land owner, taxes are a part of his life, too, so not only was he defending the taxes he had to pay, but that also included everybody else because he understood what that was like,” Ciriello continued.
While retired Northern District County Commissioner Brad Jackson has known of Long for many years, he only got to really known him for the past four years.
“Particularly in the last couple years, he and I worked really close on the wage committee. There’s been challenging issues that we worked through so we really got close during that time,” Jackson said. “I will say he was a very hard worker for the county. We would go back and forth on the phone at all odd hours. He would not hesitate to take on an issue and do what needed to be done and see it through. He did a really good job as a councilman.”
Jackson said he will not only miss Long as a councilman, but also as a friend. He agreed that Long was very knowledgeable about agriculture and was a defender of the taxpayer. He said he and Long were alike in that they were careful in how they spent taxpayers’ dollars.
“He worked hard and really took his position seriously. He worked a lot harder than he needed to, let’s put it that way,” Jackson said, adding that Long’s expectation levels were high.
Northern District County Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell, who served on the county council for the past eight years, got to know Long when they served on the council together.
“He brought a great deal to the table because he was a farmer and he understood the farmer’s plight, and he was certainly strong to represent them and speak on their behalf any time things came up that were related to farmers,” she said.
In the two years that Long served as council president, Mitchell said he worked very hard at trying to get a lot of things done that were important to the council.
“Nobody realizes the weight of the county council president, and he certainly put in the time and was working on several special projects that we had going that he was the lead person on. So he will truly, truly be missed,” she said.
Long will be very hard to replace on the council, Mitchell said. “I just hope that somebody who is really, really interested and is willing to work will be the person who steps forward and actually be a working member of the council. That would be a real blessing.”
She also stated she has sympathy for Long’s family.
“The toughness of losing somebody that sudden is astronomical, hard to bear, I’m sure.”
Kosciusko County Republican Party Chair Mike Ragan said he got acquainted with Long before Long ran for county council. Long then came to Ragan and asked him what he thought of him running for council.
“Because of his agricultural experience and everything, I thought he’d be a great asset to the council,” Ragan said.
Long has been a great defender of the taxpayer, he said, and was very knowledgeable about agriculture.
Whenever an elected official passes out, Ragan said any information regarding a caucus to replace that person won’t be announced until after the funeral. The Republican Party has 30 days from Thursday to have the caucus. The precinct committeemen who live in Long’s District 2 will be the voters in that caucus. District 2 encompasses the northwest portion of Kosciusko County from Mentone to the county line and east to the northwest portion of Warsaw.
Long was elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. His current term expires at the end of 2026.
“He’s going to be missed. He’s very knowledgeable, especially about agriculture, and hopefully whoever we replace him with on the council will be of the same mindset. That’s just a preference,” Ragan stated.
A Life Celebration Visitation will be at Titus Funeral Home, 2000 Sheridan St., Warsaw, from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday. Funeral services will begin at noon Tuesday.