In addition to any authority which is now or may hereafter be granted by the General Statutes of North Carolina to the town for making sidewalk improvements, the board of alderpersons is hereby authorized, without the necessity of a petition, to make or to order to be made sidewalk improvements or repairs according to standards and specifications of the town, and to assess the total cost thereof against abutting property owners, according to one or more of the assessment bases set forth in article 10 of chapter 160A of the North Carolina General Statutes; provided, however, that regardless of the assessment basis or bases employed, the board of alderpersons may order the cost of sidewalk improvements made only on one side of a street to be assessed against property owners abutting both sides of such street.