Note 6 - Retirement Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

6 .  Retirement Plans

The following table provides the components of net periodic benefit cost for

our defined benefit pension plans for the

three

-month and

nine

-month periods ended

September 30, 2017

and

2016

(in thousands):

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2017			2016			2017			2016
Service cost	$	-		$	-		$	-		$	-
Interest cost		1,167			1,185			3,502			3,554
Expected return on plan assets		(1,412	)		(1,298	)		(4,236	)		(3,892	)
Loss amortization		121			153			363			458
Net periodic (benefit) cost	$	(124	)	$	40		$	(371	)	$	120

During the

nine

-month period ended

September 30, 2017,

we contributed

$0.6

million to our defined benefit pension plans. During the remainder of

2017,

we expect to make additional contributions to these plans of between

$1.7

million and

$2.4

million.

During the

three

and

nine

-month periods ended

September 30, 2017,

we contributed

$1.4

million and

$5.0

million, respectively, in matching contributions to the

401k

Plan. During the remainder of

2017,

we estimate that our contributions to this plan will be approximately

$1.5

million, excluding discretionary profit-sharing contributions.