Stonington ― During more than three hours Wednesday, the Board of Selectmen cut more than $6.8 million dollars from the proposed $12.4 million capital improvement budget for 2024-25.

“This is a really challenging process. All of them are really worthwhile, but we’re going to have to make some really hard cuts,” said First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough at the start of the meeting.

The board made cuts impacting nearly every department, wiping out potential infrastructure projects, technology upgrades and emergency management requests, to settle at $7.3 million in proposed capital improvement spending.

Finance Director James Sullivan explained that by cutting some of the projects, the town will lose out on money it would have recouped from federal and state grant funding, resulting in net cuts of approximately $5.5 million.

Chesebrough warned that the Board of Finance would still need to cut another $3 million to $4 million when it begins tackling the proposed budget later this month. But she added that some items that are cut could be funded through future bonding requests.

Two related projects to repair Wolf Neck Road Bridge in Mystic were scuttled in addition to $2.1 million of work to the Mason’s Island Bridge. Town Engineer Chris Greenlaw told the Board of Selectmen the Public Works Engineering Department would instead focus on design work in the coming year.

Planning Department requests for sidewalk projects in town were slashed by more than $2.3 million to just $200,000.

A $200,000 request to upgrade antiquated radio infrastructure also saw a $60,000 reduction.

Police Capt. Bryan Schneider told the board the new system would address reliability issues for communications between fire departments, the Department of Public Works, schools and the police department. He said the remaining $140,000 would cover upgrades for the schools and fire departments, which were the primary emergency management concerns.

Requests from non-profit organizations also saw reductions.

Two Stonington Community Center requests for lighting upgrades and a master plan update totaling nearly $64,000 were cut to $8,000, and the Stonington Cemetery Association saw a $4,000 cut to it’s $20,000 request with the remaining amount to be funded at $8,000 a year over two years.

The association purchased property at the junction of Route 1 and North Main Street in 2001, and has spent $280,000 to date on the property to expand the cemetery, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The selectmen did elect to maintain a $16,000 request from Historic Stonington, formerly the Stonington Historical Society, to support the organization’s efforts to restore dozens of town-owned burial grounds, and Chesebrough said that next year, she would like to see the funding moved into the Public Works Department budget.

Among the requests that survived were $249,000 for four new police cruisers, $840,000 for the White Rock Bridge project, of which the town will recoup $420,000 from Westerly, $600,600 for the town’s share of the Alpha Avenue viaduct replacement, $600,000 in highway department requests for equipment including a street sweeper, dump truck and pickup truck, both of which are also used for plowing, and several unfunded state mandates for storm water management and Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements.

A request by Chesebrough to add $50,000 to the budget to try to secure bicycling and walking greenway grants, which require matching town funds, was rejected by Selectman Ben Tamsky and Selectwoman Deb Downie, who agreed to $20,000.

The $7.3 million in proposed spending also includes approximately $1.8 million dollars in school district capital improvement requests.

The Board of Finance is scheduled to hear department budget presentations beginning Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at the former Pawcatuck Middle School.