SKOWHEGAN -- A $20,000 donation from the Davis Family Foundation brings to $55,100 the money raised by grants to help install a new furnace at the 119-year-old Skowhegan Free Public Library on Elm Street.

"This is the third grant we have received for this $70,000 project," said Librarian Melissa Gaspar.

Gaspar said Bangor Savings Bank donated $100 and an anonymous donation of $35,000 was received from a charitable foundation.

Another $5,600 was donated from the recent Little Black Dress Revue fundraising event.

Gaspar said all the donations and grants together leave only about $9,000 to raise to pay for the new furnace that replaces the cast-iron refurbished boiler installed in 1980.

She said the furnace work started more than a month ago.

"We have heat on the first floor as of this morning," Gaspar said Friday. "The upstairs hopefully will be done within the next week or so."

Today's planned fourth annual Skowhegan Community Fall Festival in Coburn Park organized by the library was canceled Friday afternoon because of an expected storm, Gaspar said.

"(Children's Librarian) Katherine (LeBlanc)'s been working on it since last May; so many people are disappointed," Gaspar said. "Next year we hope to have an alternate location should it be a rainy day again."

This year's event was to have included 110 vendors and more than 1,500 community members.

The library this year will also participate in the Oct. 2 Career College Fair at Skowhegan Area High School, LeBlanc said. Gaspar and LeBlanc said the library will offer to help students with college applications online, as well as federal aid forms.

"As a library, we are here to help with time and space to fulfill educational needs," LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc and Gaspar were excited about the library's receipt of a "Picturing America" grant, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Forty reproductions of famous American art -- such as George Washington crossing the Delaware, as well as Andrew Wyeth and Norman Rockwell paintings -- will be displayed at various places around the community, including the library.

"The library is not just a place for literary work, it also fosters cultural awareness," Gaspar said.

Other future fundraising events include the Oct. 25 Gala at Ken's Celebration Center off U.S. Route 201, proceeds of which will go to the library. Tickets are $50 and are for sale at the library. The event begins with a social hour at 7 p.m., followed by dancing from 8 p.m. to midnight with the Tony Boffa Band providing Big Band music.

An Evening with the Stars Dance Spectacular 2008, a take-off on "Dancing with the Stars," will be held Nov. 15 with proceeds to go the library's $2 million capital campaign.

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com