People who stepped into the Marion Town House last week were greeted with a horrendous odor.

“It was awful,” Town Administrator Paul Dawson said. “We thought clearly it was a dead animal.”

It wasn’t a single dead animal, but many live ones...though they are often associated with the undead.

“You’ve heard the expression ‘bats in a belfry’? Well, apparently there are hundreds of bats in our belfry,” Dawson said. On Tuesday, Dawson informed Selectmen that the Town House was infested with bats.

One of the most heavily infested areas is an open space located above the ceiling in the room where Selectmen and other boards regularly meet. The smell wasn’t the only indication there was a problem. On July 29, a copier machine in the Town House became jammed.

An employee tried to fix the problem, but was bitten or scratched by a bat that had been inside the machine. Dawson said the animal was later captured. The bat tested negative for rabies, he said.

Around the same time, town officials began searching for the source of the odor. Eventually, the attic was examined.

Dawson said the employee who checked the attic reported bats flitting about.

“I would have been out of there like a shot,” Dawson said. “We have a serious problem.” Dawson then contacted Middleboro-based Gary’s Wildlife Service. The company estimated it would cost $3,900 to remove the bats. A second estimate that would cover the cost of disinfecting the space is forthcoming.

Removing the bats will include the installation of one-way doors, which will allow the bats to fly out of the attic but not back in, Dawson explained.

According to Dawson, the amount of waste found in the attic proves the bats have been tenants for a long time.

“That explains the bat we were seeing a year or two ago flying around, and then disappeared into the air duct,” Selectmen Chair Stephen Cushing said.

Because the situation constitutes a public health concern, Dawson did not need approval to spend the money needed to correct the problem. He said the Finance Committee would be made aware of the unexpected expense.

For Selectman Jody Dickerson, the bats weren’t a surprise.

Growing up across the street from the Town House, he said one night he and his dad noticed a colony of bats fly away from the building.

“It started way back when,” he said.