The sideshow of Rumford government is so good the town should sell tickets.

Last week, a two-person unanimous vote essentially dissolved the board of selectmen by dismissing two members and censuring another. The town now doesn’t have a quorum to conduct official business, or pay its bills.

This comes a few weeks after selectmen fired the charter commission, a citizen’s board tasked with – wait for it – improving Rumford government. A town official accused the charter commission of using secret hand signals to stop the tape recordings of its meetings.

A former charter commissioner, in response, has said serving on the voluntary panel was about as fun as his emergency appendectomy. The commission was reinstated after an appeal, however.

And how can we forget the tree-cutting, firefighter challenging, screaming insults, legal wrangling and procedural back and forth of the past several months. We wish last week’s bloodletting among selectmen was a rare, isolated uproar, and entirely unexpected.

For Rumford, this is government as usual.

The town needs a fresh start. So does Jim Doar, the town manager, whose has been forced to referee the warring factions inside Rumford Town Hall. The town’s leaders must stop squabbling among themselves, and remember their job is to serve the citizens.

Because they’re sick of the power struggles and the divisiveness. The movement to remove certain selectmen erupted from a wellspring of public dissatisfaction, and the behavior of the Rumford selectmen to backstab and form alliances with all the gusto of a “Survivor” storyline.

The crisis in confidence within Rumford stems from these internal battles to assume authority, which were unrelated to how the government managed the people’s business.

We’re unsure how Rumford moves forward from this mess. It’s unclear whether the dismissals of selectmen Arthur Boivin and Frank DiConzo is even legal. If history holds true, they will appeal and the sideshow will continue.

We hope it won’t, for the sake of the voters of Rumford, many of whom must feel guilty for impaneling this dysfunctional association to manage the community’s affairs.

The people of Rumford deserve a better government than the one they elected.