Bernard Capstick will succeed Nancy Roy Fiorillo on the Moore County Planning Board.

The Board of Commissioners appointed him Monday night.

Fiorillo was elected to the Pinehurst Village Council on Nov. 3. She is resigning from the Planning Board. She is a former county planning director.

Capstick was appointed to complete her unexpired term and to a full three-year term ending in January 2012.

The commissioners also tapped Martha Blake as Planning Board chairwoman. This vote was taken after they emerged from a closed (to the public) meeting held at the conclusion of the regular agenda Monday night.

Capstick was one of three applicants for a seat on the Planning Board. The Pinehurst resident is a retired officer and partner in a multi-plant manufacturing company.

Planning Board bylaws authorize the county commissioners to appoint the chairman, and board members to elect their own vice chairman.

Kim VonCanon is currently serving as vice chairwoman.

TAX -- Esther Cummings has been reappointed to a new four-year term as deputy tax collector.

The county commissioners made the appointment during the Monday meeting.

At the same meeting, the board voted to reappoint Paula Parke to a full three-year term on the RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) Advisory Council. She was first appointed in 2008 to fill an unexpired term.

NESBITT -- State Senate Democrats on Tuesday unanimously elected Sen. Martin Nesbitt, of Buncombe County, as their new majority leader.

Nesbitt succeeds Sen. Tony Rand, of Cumberland County, who recently resigned to accept the governor's appointment as chairman of the state parole board.

The 63-year old Asheville attorney has served in the Senate since 2004. Prior to that he served in the House, where he filled a seat vacated in 1979 by the death of his mother, Mary Nesbitt. He chairs the Senate Judiciary I Committee and the mental health oversight committee.

SNIPER RANGE -- The U.S. Senate has approved the 2010 Military Construction Appropriations Bill, which contains $3.45 million for an automated sniper field firing range at Fort Bragg.

The bill will be reconciled with the House version of the bill.

The sniper range will train and test soldiers on the skills needed to detect, identify, engage and defeat stationary and moving infantry targets, according to a news release from the office of Sen. Kay Hagan.

Contact Florence Gilkeson at (910) 693-2479 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.