City office haunted? Odd occurrences cant be explained, employees say
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City office haunted? Odd occurrences cant be explained, employees say

Sara Perkins
Monitor Staff Writer

RIO GRANDE CITY Haunted houses are nothing new in Starr County. At the
historic La Borde House, which is home to county offices, a restaurant
and a hotel, the locals say things go bump in the night and during the
day. At the county courthouse, lawyers and clerks tell stories of
whispering ghosts in the halls.
But knowing about these haunted buildings didnt lessen the surprise of
the countys compliance and collection department when pictures started
falling off the walls of their new office space in a small house on East
Street.
"Everything we put on the walls, they either fall down by the afternoon
or we find them on the floor the next day," said Lisa Barrera, a
collections department supervisor.

The department moved into the house, which it shares with another county
office, in October. But it looks like they just moved in. The walls are
almost bare, the almost-empty reception area, clean. The only things on
the walls of Barreras spacious office are a calendar which she
patiently re-hangs on its nail every morning because it always slips off
overnight and a small framed picture of angels. The angels are the only
things that have remained on the walls for any length of time.

"Maybe they like that one," Barrera said.
Who "they" are is unclear at best. While previous tenants have
complained of phantoms, the last family to live in the house never saw
or heard anything out of the ordinary.

"This is the first time Ive heard of this," said Sonata Sanchez, whose
husbands family lived in the house until about 1989. None of the family
members she asked knew of any specters or ghouls and said theres never
been a haunting in the house.

County attorney Victor Canales once worked in the building in the late
1990s when it housed a private law practice.

"Im not one to believe much in the paranormal, to be honest," he said.
Still, a few of the sightings there freaked him out.

"I had one instance where myself and another lady were there, and I
thought I saw her, she had crossed over the hallway. I called out Hey,
Debbie, and lo and behold, Debbie was actually at her desk on the other
side of the house," he said.

For the collections department, the paranormal interference goes beyond
disapproval of the decor. They have found imprints on tables that cannot
be wiped off imprints of backsides too narrow to belong to office
employees, as if a skinny girl had perched there.

They say they hear the front door open and close with a clatter of
Venetian blinds, but find no one there. Friends call their names from
adjacent rooms, but donât admit to speaking. Occasionally, the ghosts
will wash some invisible dishes in the kitchen sink, filling the house
with the sound of running water.
And theres the smell.

"Out of the blue, youll get this bitter smell," Barrera said. "Some
days, we have to be with the Lysol all over the place, because its just
an old-man smell. Its really strong, and then it just goes away."

The tenants have made their peace with the odd little incidents, Barrera
said. Theyre funny, not really scary, she said, although the crash of
light paintings hitting desks and the tinkle of broken glass can put
employees on edge.

"Nobody likes to be here after five," she said.

Sara Perkins covers Starr County and general assignments for The
Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472. For this and more local
stories, visit www.themonitor.com.