NOTE I: BENEFIT PLANS

The Company provides a qualified defined benefit pension to eligible employees and retirees, other post-retirement health and life insurance benefits to certain retirees, an unfunded supplemental pension plan for certain key executives, and an unfunded stock balance plan for certain of its nonemployee directors. The Company accrues for the estimated cost of these benefits through charges to expense during the years that employees earn these benefits. The service cost component of net periodic benefit income is included in the salaries and employee benefits line of the Consolidated Statements of Income, while the other components of net periodic benefit income are included in other expenses. The Company made a $7.3 million contribution to its defined benefit pension plan in the first quarter of 2019.

Effective June 1, 2018, the Company adopted the Community Bank System, Inc. Restoration Plan (“Restoration Plan”). The Restoration Plan is a non-qualified deferred compensation plan for certain employees whose benefits under tax-qualified retirement plans are restricted by the Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(17) limitation on compensation. Adoption of the plan resulted in an unfunded initial projected benefit obligation of approximately $0.8 million that will be amortized over the average expected future years of service of active plan participants.

The net periodic benefit cost for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018 is as follows:

	Pension Benefits						Post-retirement Benefits
	Three Months Ended March 31,						Three Months Ended March 31,
(000's omitted)	2019			2018			2019			2018
Service cost	$	1,270		$	1,121		$	0		$	0
Interest cost		1,566			1,415			18			17
Expected return on plan assets		(3,577	)		(3,705	)		0			0
Amortization of unrecognized net loss		642			298			9			5
Amortization of prior service cost		16			(83	)		(45	)		(44	)
Net periodic benefit	$	(83	)	$	(954	)	$	(18	)	$	(22	)