7-3-4442. Local improvements. (1) The commission shall have the power by ordinance to provide for:

(a) the construction, reconstruction, repair, and maintenance, by contract or directly by the employment of labor, of all things in the nature of local improvements; and

(b) the payment of any part of the cost of any such improvement by levying and collecting special assessments upon abutting, adjacent, and contiguous or other specially benefited property, as provided by general law.

(2) Whenever the payments for such improvements are to extend over a period of years and are to be paid for in installments, the proceedings and all things done in connection with such improvements are to be done in strict conformity with the provisions of parts 41 and 42 of chapter 12.