Note 13 – Employee Benefit Plans

The Company has a qualified, defined benefit pension plan that was established to provide benefits to certain employees. The plan is frozen and participants are no longer accruing benefits. Generally, contributions to the plan are not less than the minimum amounts required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), and not more than the maximum amount that can be deducted for federal income tax purposes. The plan assets are held by an independent trustee and consist primarily of equity and fixed income securities.

The Company also provides certain postretirement health care benefits for certain of its salaried retired employees. Generally, employees may become eligible for health care benefits if they retire after attaining specified age and service requirements. These benefits are subject to deductibles, co-payment provisions and other limitations.

Additionally, as a result of the cost reduction program initiated in January 2017, certain employees participating in the salaried pension and postretirement benefit plans were impacted, which triggered curtailments of the respective plans during the nine months ended September 30, 2017.

The components of net periodic benefit cost (benefit) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, are as follows:



	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
Pension Benefits	2018		2017		2018		2017
Interest cost	$	428	$	446	$	1,283	$	1,338
Expected return on plan assets		(711)		(642)		(2,133)		(1,926)
Amortization of unrecognized net loss		112		119		338		357
Plan curtailment and special termination benefits		-		-		-		270
	$	(171)	$	(77)	$	(512)	$	39


	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
Postretirement Benefit Plan	2018		2017		2018		2017
Service cost	$	8	$	13	$	24	$	37
Interest cost		46		51		138		151
Amortization of prior service cost		4		4		12		11
Amortization of unrecognized net (gain) loss		(70)		(79)		(210)		(238)
Plan curtailment and special termination benefits		-		-		-		150
	$	(12)	$	(11)	$	(36)	$	111

The Company made no contributions to the Company’s defined benefit pension plan for each of the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017. The Company expects to make no contributions to its pension plan in 2018.

The Company made contributions to the Company’s postretirement benefit plan for salaried retirees of $74 and $122 for the three months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and $426 and $389 for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The Company expects to make $570 in contributions (including contributions already made) to its postretirement benefit plan in 2018 for salaried retirees.

The Company also maintains qualified defined contribution plans, which provide benefits to employees based on employee contributions, employee earnings or certain subsidiary earnings, with discretionary contributions allowed. Expenses related to these plans were $329 and $243 for the three months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and $1,216 and $1,180 for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively.