Virginia will go to the polls Tuesday, March 1 as part of Super Tuesday, an important primary day in the 2016 Presidential race.

There are primaries or caucuses in 11 states.

Here is what you need to know:

There will be two primaries held in each poll location in Fairfax County. Registered voters can vote for either a Democratic candidate or a Republican candidate, but not both. You do not register to vote to vote by party in Virginia.

The Presidential Primary ballots were printed in advance of absentee voting, which started in January. Several candidates have since withdrawn from the election.

Earlier this month, the State Board of Elections approved the Republican Party of Virginia’s request to rescind use of a statement of affiliation to vote in the Republican Party Primary. Voters who request a Republican ballot for the March 1 Primary will not be asked to sign a statement of affiliation. More information will be found at http://elections.virginia.gov/.

Here is a Democrat sample ballot.

Here is a Republican sample ballot.

Fairfax County Public Schools also announced last week school will be closed on Tuesday. The school board had voted for a two-hour delay, but with a heavy turnout expected, the board voted to close for the day.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Bring your ID

There are several forms of acceptable photo ID:

• Virginia driver’s license
• U.S. passport
• Military ID
• Federal, Virginia or local government-issued photo ID cards
• Complete list from the Virginia Department of Elections

If you do not have a photo ID, you can get a free photo ID from the Office of Elections. Contact them at 703-222-0776, TTY 711, or email [email protected].

Where to vote

Not sure where your polling spot is? Visit this online tool on the Fairfax County Board of Elections website.

In Reston, there have been a couple of changes since the last election. The Terraset precinct polling place has been moved to Langston Hughes Middle School. There is also a new district in North Reston. A new precinct at Armstrong Elementary was created by dividing Aldrin and North Point precincts.

The northern portion of North Point precinct combined with the northern portion of Aldrin will retain the name “North Point,” with polling place at St. Thomas a Becket Catholic Church, 1421 Wiehle Avenue, Reston. The southern portion of Aldrin retains the name “Aldrin” and polling place at Aldrin Elementary School.

Unsure if those changes affect you? Enter your address in the online tool or contact the board of elections.

First it snowed. Then the freezing rain fell. Now it is just rain on top of ice — at least until later today.

Tuesday morning’s weather has made for slick sidewalks and traffic backups, but forecasters say temperatures should rise quickly and make things slushy — but not dangerous — in the next few hours. Highs should be near 50 by mid-day.

Meanwhile, Fairfax County Public Schools are closed. Fairfax County Government is open. Metro is on its regular weekday service plan, but delays are being reported on Blue, Orange and Silver lines.

Fairfax County is also under a flood watch today, with the greatest flood risk Tuesday afternoon and evening, according to the National Weather Service. A flood watch means there is potential for flooding.

Let us know what you see out there on your commute this morning.

Ice on trees in Reston Feb. 16/Credit: Douglas H. Errett via Twitter

Reston-area drone owners will still be able to fly their aircraft — at least around here.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has amended its rule put in place in January that banned flying unmanned aircraft in the area within 30 miles of Washington’s restricted air space.

On Wednesday, the FAA said the rule of no unmanned aircraft with 15 miles of DC still stands. But in Reston, which is 18 miles from Washington, drones will still be allowed.

From the FAA:

Under the new procedures, hobbyists and recreational unmanned aircraft operators can fly aircraft that weigh less than 55 lbs. (including any attachments such as a camera) in the area between 15 and 30 miles of Washington, D.C. if the aircraft are registered and marked, and they follow specific operating conditions. The operating conditions require them to fly 400 feet or lower above the ground, stay in the operator’s line of sight, only fly in clear conditions, and avoid other aircraft.

If hobbyists intend to operate within five miles of an airport or heliport, the new procedures also require them to notify the airport, heliport and air traffic control tower, if there is one, before operating.

Commercial and other non-model aircraft operators must register and mark their unmanned aircraft, must have an exemption and comply with it, and must notify the FAA an hour before operating to provide specific flight information.

Public operators, such as federal, state or local governments, must also register and mark their aircraft, must have the appropriate FAA authorization to operate, and must complete the same one-hour notification before operating.

Register your drone on the FAA’s website.

Drone in Sky/Credit: jacinta lluch valero via Flickr

A Reston homeowner got a surprise along with her morning coffee Thursday morning when a deer smashed through a large window of her Hunters Woods-area home.

The homeowner — who asked her name and address not be used because her house is not secure right now — said she heard a large crash.

“I thought it was a tree branch,” she said. “There was a rumbling sound and glass breaking. Then I looked in the sunroom and there was a mess all over.”

The homeowner, who has lived in the house off of Steeplechase Road for 49 years, said the deer knocked a chair across the room. The sunroom door was closed, so the deer was unable to run through the house, she said.

Among the broken glass from the 3-by-5 foot window, the homeowner and her daughter found clumps of animal hair.

The homeowner said she sees deer coming through her wooded lot almost daily.

“They pass through all the time,” she said. “They are usually so tame. I don’t think there was anything I could have done to prevent this.”

Deer population has been on the rise in Reston and other Fairfax County areas, officials said. It has created mainly a hazard on roads, especially during mating season. Reston Association in 2014 approved a private deer hunt on Sourwood Lane, which is also in the Hunters Woods area.

A former director of Reston’s Sunset Hills Montessori School is co-founding a new elementary and middle school slated to open its doors in or near Reston next fall.

Reston resident Garrett Wilhelm, who for years worked at Sunset Hills and most recently was director of The Boyd School’s Westfield campus, and Rodney Berthold, formerly the middle school dean at The Boyd School, are teaming up for the Berthold Academy for the Gifted and Talented.

Berthold Academy will be the area’s first Montessori school that focuses only on grades one through eight, said Wilhelm. Most Montessori schools start with or are strictly preschool programs.

“There are 57 Montessori schools in Northern Virginia — 23 of them in Reston/Herndon/Great Falls,” said Wilhelm. “There are only four in Northern Virginia that do elementary and middle school grades. None of them are elementary and middle school only.”

Montessori education is an approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori that emphasizes independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and social development.

Wilhelm says that method is ideal for children in elementary and middle school. Rather than lecture-based learning, students in mixed-age classrooms learn through self-directed discovery and small collaborative groups.

The school is not going for full accreditation by the American Montessori Society because it wants to mix in its own curriculum to prepare middle schoolers for traditional high school, Wilhelm said.

Tuition is expected to be about $15,000 a year. Fifteen students are already enrolled, and the first-year goal is to start with 40 students, said Wilhelm.

Berthold Academy already has a lineup of unique classes and speciality teachers, including:

• Yoga and Mindfulness – taught by certified yoga teacher Jessica Simpson
• Culinary Arts – taught by Emilia Cirker, a recent contestant on TV’s “Next Food Network Star.”
• Music Production – taught by Mix Major’s DJ Enferno, who has worked with musicians such as  Madonna.
• Entrepreneurial Education – taught by founder of IFormBuilder, Sze Wong.
• IT/Coding/Programming – Taught by the team at IFormBuilder
• Gardening (Farm to Table) – A full gardening program taught by Emilia Cirker in which the children will learn the value of growing, harvesting, and cooking organic produce.
• STEAM program and Spanish instruction.

Wilhelm said the he and Berthold are very close to signing a lease for school space in Reston.

Want to learn more? Attend an information session Feb. 11 at The Harrison Apartments, 1800 Jonathan Way, Reston at 6:30 p.m. Babysitting will be provided.

Crews constructing the Reston Town Center Metro station will begin a pile-driving operation later this week in the median of the Dulles Toll Road just west of Reston Parkway.

Pile driving, which pounds steel piles into the soil to support foundations for the rail station, is slated to begin Friday, Feb. 5.

Pile driving will occur during the day, between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays and occasionally on Saturdays, and will continue for approximately six months, says the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.

Adjacent businesses and residences surrounding this work area can expect noise. Pile driving usually is done in intervals of about 15 minutes with a similar break in between activities.

In addition, drivers are asked to use caution and pay attention to signage along this section of the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles International Airport Access road.

The Reston Town Center station will be the first stop on Phase 2 of the Silver Line, which will run from Wiehle-Reston East to Dulles International Airport and into Ashburn. It is expected to open in 2020.

Photos courtesy Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project

Warmer temperatures have contributed to significant melting of the record snow this week, but one problem still plaguing Reston-area roads is narrow access — two-lane roads are now one-lane roads in many spots.

Snowplow piles and lanes that haven’t been plowed are on many roads, making it slow-going or even dangerous on major streets.

Many Reston Now readers pointed out some of the worst trouble spots on Reston Now’s Facebook page this morning:

There are also some roads in which one side only has half a lane (Twin Branches is one of them, I’m sure there are a lot more), with the the right half of the lane completely blocked by snow mounds. Which means if you’re driving in a full lane, you may pass someone going the opposite way who is literally being forced to straddle the yellow lane. Please, people, show some courtesy and move over to the right as far as you can so everyone can move.

The other bad street for me is Soapstone north of Glade. The plowed part starts on the far left moves to the center then back over the left. This leaves you w/o proper lane markings.

Soapstone from Glade to Sunrise Valley. Downright scary yesterday.

It took me 45 minutes to drive 2 miles in Reston at rush hour last night.

The Virginia Department of Transportation says “crews have worked around-the-clock to make all roads in northern Virginia passable post-blizzard, but there is still some clean-up to do.”

By 3 p.m. Thursday, Sunrise Valley Drive, for instance, had been cleared edge-to-edge, but nearby Soapstone Drive still had people driving in the turn lane.

“Crews are working to widen and restore remaining snow-impacted lanes on primary and high-volume secondary roads,” said VDOT spokeswoman Jennifer McCord. “Clearing efforts will continue through the week, using equipment such as front loaders and motor graders to move snow where plows are unable to push.” Read More

You’ve spent hours shoveling out a parking spot. You are not going to put in all that effort for nothing.

That was the message all along Glade Drive on Wednesday. As many people returned to work, they had to dig out their cars from snowdrifts and snowplow piles.

When they departed, they left behind all sorts of things to mark their sweat-equity territory — a pet carrier, brooms, concrete blocks and a whole variety of chairs, among other items.

Reston Now reader Joy Charles captured photos of some of the creativity along Glade between Reston Parkway and Fairfax Parkway.

Do you think residents should me able to mark parking spots on a public road/main thoroughfare like Glade?

Photos by Joy Charles

After several days hunkered down at home, you may be ready to get out.

Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Week started Monday and may have just what you need.

Participating Reston-area restaurants include:

• McCormick & Schmick’s, Reston Town Center
• The Melting Pot, Plaza America
• Morton’s, The Steakhouse, Reston Town Center
• M&S Grill, Reston Town Center
• Neyla, Reston Town Center
• PassionFish, Reston Town Center
• Europa, Herndon
• Stone’s Cove Kitbar, Herndon

Participating restaurants are offering $22 lunch menus and $35 dinner menus.

Visit the Restaurant Week website to make reservations and see the entire list of participating restaurants in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Restaurant Week, a project of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, has been extended through Feb. 3 due to the weather.

The Reston branch of the U.S. Post Office has finally been plowed and will be open for business Wednesday.

Reston residents should expect home mail delivery Wednesday.

The branch had been closed since Saturday, when a blizzard dumped nearly three feet of snow on Reston. There has been no residential delivery Friday as delivery trucks were snowbound in the parking lot.

A private contractor is responsible for plowing the lot of the building on Sunset Hills Road.

Rep. Gerry Connolly’s office was alerted by a Reston resident to the plow’s no-show. Connolly’s office got involved, and the parking lot was plowed.

Metro says that the Red, Orange, Blue, Green and Yellow lines will all open for regular service at 5 a.m. Wednesday.

The Silver Line? They still don’t know.

“It is not yet known whether service can be restored on the Silver Line in time for morning rush hour due to ongoing ice and snow clearing efforts,” Metro said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

If the Silver Line is not running, free shuttle buses will be provided starting at 5 a.m. between all Silver Line stations and West Falls Church, where connections can be made to the Orange Line, says Metro.

Metrorail service will operate on a modified weekday service with trains running every 8 minutes on each line. Stations that are served by multiple lines will see more frequent service.

The system has slowly been getting back to regular service since shutting down late Friday night through Saturday and Sunday as the blizzard raged through the area.

Progress has been slow to recover at the above-ground stations, where ice and snow have accumulated on the tracks following the storm that dumped nearly three feet of snow here.

All five of Fairfax County’s Silver Line stations, including Wiehle-Reston East, are above ground.

For complete Metro info, visit Metro’s website.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) says its goal is to make one lane of all Northern Virginia subdivisions passable by Wednesday at 6 a.m., but the daunting amount of snow is one of many factors that has impeded speedy snow removal.

The agency, which is responsible for most of Virginia’s primary and secondary roads, said in a statement that “crews are making significant progress on 16,000 subdivision streets across Northern Virginia. If residents do not have one passable lane by 6 a.m. tomorrow, they can contact VDOT at 1-800-FOR-ROAD or [email protected].

VDOT says passable is defined as the ability for a rear wheel drive vehicle to operate safely. This means that roads will not be cleared down to bare pavement and will not be cleared curb to curb.

“VDOT has approximately almost four times the amount of equipment available in previous years,” VDOT said. “The type of equipment needed for this phase of the response is of a much larger scale and complexity. The smaller plows that VDOT typically uses in subdivision are effective up to 10 inches of snow. Some neighborhoods of Northern Virginia received upwards of 40 inches of snow and require heavier equipment.”

The blizzard that dumped about three feet of snow in this area over the weekend was “historic,” VDOT officials said. As with previous large storms, (i.e. in 2003 and 2010), they are urging residents to be patient.

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