Norbert Kellner, a retired watchmaker of 43 years, and three of his immediate neighbors on Edelweiss Strasse — Imogene Trask (68, retired church organist), Olin Partridge (81, retired dairy farmer), and Louise Petcock (77, retired Helen Elementary School cafeteria manager) — arrived at the White County Clerk's office at 727 Main Street in Cleveland at 2:02 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Kellner was carrying a three-ring binder. The binder was maroon. The binder contained, per White County Clerk Filing Receipt 2026-GC-0178, a 24-page typed document titled, in full:

Articles Of Impeachment Of The Helen Downtown Glockenspiel, Presented This Fifteenth Day Of April, In The Two Thousand And Twenty Sixth Year Of The Common Era.

The document alleges one count: that on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at approximately 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Glockenspiel executed "an unauthorized chime sequence, consisting of one stroke of the primary bell and three strokes of the secondary bell, at a time not corresponding to any scheduled authorized chime point, thereby usurping the temporal authority of the hour."

The document cites, as its jurisdictional basis, the White County Board of Commissioners' Resolution 2025-11 (which formally places the Glockenspiel "under the cognizance" of the county), and — more expansively — Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, noting in a footnote that "the Framers' choice of the term 'civil officers' was advisedly broad."

The chime

The alleged unauthorized chime occurred at 4:17 p.m. April 14. Per the records of the Helen Chamber of Commerce, which operates the Glockenspiel's chime controller, the Glockenspiel is programmed to chime on the hour between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. It is not programmed to chime at 4:17.

Chamber Executive Director Willa Mackey, asked Wednesday evening whether the 4:17 chime had, in fact, occurred, said: "I have reviewed the Glockenspiel's operating log for April 14. The log indicates that a chime was executed at 4:17:03 p.m. The log does not indicate why."

Asked whether the chime was, in Ms. Mackey's professional view, an "unauthorized chime" within the meaning of the petition, Ms. Mackey said the chime was "not scheduled. I would call it unscheduled, rather than unauthorized." She declined to elaborate on the distinction.

The clock's hands, at the moment of the chime, were observed — per the account of Imogene Trask, who was on her porch at 1104 Edelweiss Strasse, approximately 340 feet from the clock — to be pointing at the 4 and the 3. Meaning: the clock itself knew it was 4:17. It chimed anyway.

The petitioners

Mr. Kellner, asked outside the Clerk's office whether he believed impeachment was the appropriate remedy, said: "The Glockenspiel has held the public trust for 49 years. To chime at 4:17 p.m., on a Tuesday, with no warning — this is not a mistake. A mistake is a dropped hammer. This is a decision."

Ms. Trask added: "And we want a hearing."

Mr. Partridge, who uses a cane and had waited for his colleagues to speak first, said: "I was milking the goats. I looked up. I said: 'That is not the time.' My watch said so. The clock said so." He paused. "Yet."

Ms. Petcock declined to add remarks beyond a quotation from the 24-page filing: "'Ipsa hora damnavit se ipsam.' The hour condemned itself."

White County response

County Clerk Carolyn Redwine accepted the binder and issued a filing receipt at 2:04 p.m. She told the four petitioners, per her own subsequent account, that she could not "speak to the procedural disposition of the document," only that it had been received and logged.

White County Commissioner Dale Henneman, reached by phone Wednesday evening, said the petition would be "scheduled for discussion at a future meeting of the board, as time allows." Asked whether, given his authorship of Resolution 2026-41 pegging the Glockenspiel's chimes to the Federal Reserve — a resolution that, if applied retroactively, would have prohibited any chime on April 14, the day before any authorized post-FOMC chime window — he viewed the April 14 chime as a matter his resolution had already addressed, Mr. Henneman paused and then said: "That is a good question."

A second hearing on a separate matter involving the Glockenspiel — Resolution 2026-42, pegging the 6:00 p.m. chime to ICE Brent crude futures — remains tabled pending further study. The impeachment filing, per Clerk Redwine, has been added to the April 29 BOC agenda under "New Business, Item 7(d)."

The Glockenspiel, as of this filing, is silent.