By Teresa L. Benns
SAGUACHE— The Saguache County Planning Commission (SCPC) approved three more marijuana grows last Thursday but the review of the Barkl cultivation in Ewing Estates, tabled at their last meeting until the county could inspect the property, was absent from the list.
County acting administrator and Land Use Administrator Wendi Maez confirmed Thursday that Michael Barkl’s application was removed because he is under investigation by the Marijuana Enforcement Division in Denver.
Several irregularities in Barkl’s application were brought to the attention of county commissioners by adjacent landowners Shiloh Jackman and Mischa Vining-Doyle. The couple’s story was broadcast on Channel 7 News in Denver this May.

Barkl irregularities
Barkl’s THC Inc. is registered as a non-profit. Under the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Act, one bookkeeper reports, control of the nonprofit corporation is under a board of directors. None of these directors were listed on Barkl’s business registration.
A Facebook page appearing to be Barkl’s initially showed he was residing in Hong Kong, but now lists his place of residence as Colorado. Colorado Secretary of State rules require both the authority to transact business in Colorado and a usual place of business in Colorado in order to be appointed as a registered agent.
At present Barkl is using a travelling UPS mailbox on his conditional use application and previously was flying in and out of Saguache (possibly from out of state) for planning commission meetings.
In his initial correspondence with Vining-Doyle and Jackman to address their concerns about the proposed grow, Barkl included a signature using his South Dakota fireworks company and an South Dakota area code. Tiger Tooth Fireworks LLC is not registered to do business in Colorado. His Facebook page documents his plans for this business in 2018 in South Dakota.

Other grows approved
After clearing up some issues with proper recording of documents, conditional use applications were approved for two cultivations — one for Jinfeng Liang, landowner, JFD, LLC, in La Garita and the other for Zhuoyu Ling, landowner/Golden Leaf MIP, LLC, also in La Garita. Michael Biggio represented Liang and Ling for both applications.
Biggio explained to the commission that he “is trying to work with people who want to do this [own/operate marijuana cultivations] to steer them in the right direction and walk them through all the compliances.” Biggio is a former Moffat trustee and facilitator of the questionable Moffat annexation.  
Jay LeBlanc of Bonanza asked Biggio if the Chinese couple he is representing are U.S. citizens. Biggio told LeBlanc they have been fully vetted by the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) and LeBlanc replied, “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It should,” Biggio shot back. “Well it doesn’t,” LeBlanc answered him.
Questions have been raised regarding MED’s oversight of applicants, verification of character and full background vetting. Both Washington and California are experiencing problems with government agencies and interactions with marijuana applicants.
The third conditional use permit for marijuana cultivation approved was Cole’s Colorado Cannabis, owned by Phillip Tiu of California. The grow is part of a trout farm operation that hopes to use fish waste as a fertilizer and has plans to create organic compost for marijuana grows.