Those unaccustomed to winter driving may fret over the year’s first major snowstorm, but it’s business as usual at the Rochester Highway Department.

“This is what I call a ‘bread and milk’ storm. We will have this same storm in three weeks, and it will be mentioned on the Weather Channel, but that’s it,” Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge said.

New Englanders are known to stock up on staples such as bread and milk ahead of large (and sometimes not-so-large) storms. The behavior is either prudent or comical, depending on whom you ask.

With forecasters calling for anywhere between eight inches to two feet of snow, plus the possibility of blizzard conditions, who's to say what the right answer is?

No matter how much snow falls, Eldridge said Rochester is prepared. Town roads were sanded throughout the afternoon on Thursday. Just before 5 p.m., his 16-man crew was preparing to plow streets. He expected to be plowing all night.

“It is winter,” he said.