The child who was bitten, a 3-year-old girl, reached in a puppet basket to play with the puppets and encountered a small bat, Dean said. She had just finished story time when she heard the child scream.

Town workers came and removed the bat.

After the child had gone home, the mother found a bite mark on her hand, Dean said. The town workers came back and attempted to relocate the bat, but there were several and they could not determine which one the child had encountered.

Rabies treatments were immediately begun on the child and she is doing fine, said Dean, who has been in touch with the mother.

“Thursday afternoon we had a bird program and the child was there with her mother,” Dean said. “I was glad to see her there. She showed me her Band-Aids. I hope she doesn’t have any lasting effects from this. It’s devastating to me that a child has been bitten. The town was sealing the holes, but Thursday afternoon another bat appeared as someone was twirling the bookshelves (in the sales section). There was a child with her that wanted to see it, but I said, ‘Nooo!’ We just felt like it was very necessary to close.”

Dean said that every year about this time there are bats and bat droppings in the building. The cleaning woman deals with it daily, she said.

“We’ve lived with it a long time,” Dean said. “Good patrons carry the bats out of here. Every time we ask the town they come and remove the bats and block where they are coming in, but they just keep coming in. I’m always supportive of the town. We just need to get rid of these bats.”