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)	2017			2016

Employee Pension Plan:
Interest cost	$	216		$	226
Amortization of unrecognized loss		174			201
Expected return on plan assets		(348	)		(348	)
Net employee pension expense	$	42		$	79

Outside Director Pension Plan:
Service cost	$	10		$	11
Interest cost		23			24
Amortization of unrecognized gain		(23	)		(21	)
Amortization of past service liability		10			10
Net outside director pension expense	$	20		$	24

Other Postretirement Benefit Plans:
Service cost	$	79		$	90
Interest cost		76			80
Amortization of unrecognized loss		-			12
Amortization of past service liability		(21	)		(21	)
Net other postretirement expense	$	134		$	161

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

December

31,

2016

that it expects to contribute

$0.3

million and

$0.2

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

December

31,

2017.

The Company does not expect to make a contribution to the Employee Pension Plan (the “Employee Pension Plan”). As of

March

31,

2017,

the Company has contributed

$36,000

to the Outside Director Pension Plan and

$18,000

to the Other Postretirement Benefit Plans. As of

March

31,

2017,

the Company has not revised its expected contributions for the year ending

December

31,

2017.