The Meridian Fire Department was in the process of building a new training room. The problem was that consideration had not been given to using the room as a citywide Emergency Operations Center. The purpose of this Applied Research Project was to determine the need for a citywide Emergency Operations Center and the technology links that should be provided for such a Center. To accomplish this, descriptive research was conducted through personal interviews, a literature review and a review of pertinent web sites useful in mitigating a major incident. In addition, a survey of 81 like-size agencies in the Northwest was conducted to determine the need for Cable TV and Internet access. This information was utilized to answer the following research questions pertaining to emergency operation centers: 1.What types of incidents would require that the Emergency Operations Center be activatied in the city of Meridian? 2. What type of incidents that would warrant the activation of an Emergency Operations Center would also require outside information for its mitigation? 3. What information provided by local and network news media might facilitate making informed decisions for the staff in an Emergency Operations Center, for the city of Meridian? 4. What types of information accessed or exchanged over the Internet would be beneficial to the Emergency Operations Center staff? The literature review, interviews, and the review of Web sites confirmed the need for an Emergency Operations Center for the city.The results of the 81 agencies surveyed revealed that it was very important for the EOC's to have access to the information that the local/network media were broadcasting and the information available on the Internet. The research project recommended that the training room be also utilized as a Citywide Emergency Operations Center and be equipped with links for the cable TV to access local and network media news and that access be provided to the Internet.