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Ground breaks Wednesday on the $10.5 million Emergency Response Building at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.

General contractor Skanska USA Building of Beaverton will build a three-story classroom building with training space for firefighters, paramedics, police, criminal justice professionals and students.

Scheduled to be completed in Fall 2011, the 33,000-square-foot building includes classrooms, labs, faculty and administrative offices, a cafeteria, a coffee shop, a student lounge, a library and a conference room. According to the college, Chemeketa’s fire science program for firefighters is the third largest in the country.

鈥淚t’s a unique, important building that will serve the public and strengthen Chemeketa’s already strong program,鈥� said Joe Schneider, a senior project manager with Skanska. 鈥淲e will be building on a site with an existing training facility and fire station, so we will have to be careful to keep their operations going while we build the new facility.鈥�