COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2017

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES [Abstract]

NOTE 15 – COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Rent expense charged to operations under lease agreements for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 aggregated approximately $1,613 and $1,525, respectively. Aggregate future minimum rental payments required under all non-cancelable operating leases at June 30, 2017 are as follows:

Year
July 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017	$	2,025
2018		2,036
2019		1,654
2020		1,313
2021		1,169
2022		863
Thereafter		5,962
Total minimum lease payments	$	15,022

In 1982, the Company discovered and thereafter removed a number of buried drums containing unidentified waste material from the Company’s site in Slate Hill, New York. The Company thereafter entered into a Consent Decree to evaluate the drum site with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (“NYDEC”) and performed a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study that was approved by NYDEC in February 1994. Based on NYDEC requirements, the Company cleaned the area and removed soil from the drum burial site, which was completed in 1996. The Company continues to be involved in discussions with NYDEC to evaluate test results and determine what, if any, additional actions will be required on the part of the Company to close out the remediation of this site. Additional actions, if any, would likely require the Company to continue monitoring the site. The cost of such monitoring has been less than $5 per year for the period 2004 to date.

The Company’s Verona, Missouri facility, while held by a prior owner, was designated by the EPA as a Superfund site and placed on the National Priorities List in 1983, because of dioxin contamination on portions of the site. Remediation conducted by the prior owner under the oversight of the EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (“MDNR”) included removal of dioxin contaminated soil and equipment, capping of areas of residual contamination in four relatively small areas of the site separate from the manufacturing facilities, and the installation of wells to monitor groundwater and surface water contamination by organic chemicals. No ground water or surface water treatment was required. The Company believes that remediation of the site is complete. In 1998, the EPA certified the work on the contaminated soils to be complete. In February 2000, after the conclusion of two years of monitoring groundwater and surface water, the former owner submitted a draft third party risk assessment report to the EPA and MDNR recommending no further action. The prior owner is awaiting the response of the EPA and MDNR to the draft risk assessment.

While the Company must maintain the integrity of the capped areas in the remediation areas on the site, the prior owner is responsible for completion of any further Superfund remedy. The Company is indemnified by the sellers under its May 2001 asset purchase agreement covering its acquisition of the Verona, Missouri facility for potential liabilities associated with the Superfund site and one of the sellers, in turn, has the benefit of certain contractual indemnification by the prior owner that is implementing the above-described Superfund remedy.

From time to time, the Company is a party to various litigation, claims and assessments. Management believes that the ultimate outcome of such matters will not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial position, results of operations, or liquidity.