EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP PLAN

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans [Text Block]

NOTE 8 – EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP PLAN

The Bank maintains an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (the “ESOP”) to provide eligible employees the opportunity to own Company stock. This plan is a tax-qualified retirement plan for the benefit of all Company employees. Contributions are allocated to eligible participants on the basis of compensation, subject to federal tax limits.

The Company granted a loan to the ESOP to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock on the closing date of the Company’s mutual to stock conversion in 2012. As of June 30, 2018, the ESOP held 177,584 shares or 7.1% of the common stock outstanding on that date. The loan is payable annually over 15 years at the rate of 3.25% per annum. The loan can be prepaid without penalty. Loan payments are expected to be funded by cash contributions from the Bank. The loan is secured by the shares purchased, which are held in a suspense account for allocation among participants as the loan is repaid. Cash dividends paid on allocated shares are reinvested into shares to participants and cash dividends paid on unallocated shares will be used to repay the outstanding debt of the ESOP. Shares used as collateral to secure the loan are released and available for allocation to eligible employees as the principal and interest on the loan is paid.

Shares held by the ESOP at June 30, 2018 include the following:

Allocated	62,041
Committed to be allocated	6,419
Unallocated	109,124
	177,584

The fair value of unallocated shares was $3.7 million at June 30, 2018.

Total compensation expense recognized in connection with the ESOP for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 was $104 thousand and $87 thousand, respectively. ESOP-related compensation expense was $198 thousand and $174 thousand for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively.