To Refurbish or Buy New

As we all know today money in our local fire departments is getting tight right? During the time of the AFG being open many fire departments have to make the decision of whether or not to apply for a grant for new apparatus or to keep their old apparatus. Coming from a small department in Rural Indiana we face the time of applying for a grant or refurbishing our 1996 E-one Engine or looking at getting a new engine. With the stipulations of the grant saying the apparatus can't be used any longer for fire suppression it limits what a lot of fire departments can do. With a lot of fire apparatus still in good shape for use is this a problem?

Today with the new technology its easy for our fire apparatus to be hard to use or get accustomed too. Today we can get the most from our engines with this technology but we also can keep the old and update with the new. I know we could do a lot of things to our current engine and still have the same things we like such as a non electronic throttle and so on. The new emissions standards also throws a lot of complications as well for our apparatus. We can always keep our older apparatus just update how it needs to meet our current needs. So is it the right thing to do to refurbish old apparatus or to just buy new?