Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans

The following table sets forth information regarding the components of net expense for the pension and other postretirement benefit plans.

	Three months ended
	March 31,
(In thousands)	2018			2017

Employee Pension Plan:
Interest cost	$	195		$	216
Amortization of unrecognized loss		155			174
Expected return on plan assets		(363	)		(348	)
Net employee pension ( benefit) expense	$	(13	)	$	42

Outside Director Pension Plan:
Service cost	$	11		$	10
Interest cost		20			23
Amortization of unrecognized gain		(23	)		(23	)
Amortization of past service liability		3			10
Net outside director pension expense	$	11		$	20

Other Postretirement Benefit Plans:
Service cost	$	88		$	79
Interest cost		77			76
Amortization of unrecognized loss		-			-
Amortization of past service credit		(13	)		(21	)
Net other postretirement expense	$	152		$	134

The Company previously disclosed in its Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended

December 31, 2017

that it expects to contribute

$0.2

million to each of the Outside Director Pension Plan (the “Outside Director Pension Plan”) and the other postretirement benefit plans (the “Other Postretirement Benefit Plans”), during the year ending

December 31, 2018.

The Company does

not

expect to make a contribution to the Employee Pension Plan (the “Employee Pension Plan”). As of

March 31, 2018,

the Company has contributed

$24,000

to the Outside Director Pension Plan and

$20,000

in contributions were made to the Other Postretirement Benefit Plans. As of

March 31, 2018,

the Company has

not

revised its expected contributions for the year ending

December 31, 2018.