“I’m shooting for Monday, December 20th,” said Steve Zahn, one of the owners of the fast-food restaurant on U.S. Highway 24-40, north of Tonganoxie High School.

Even though he noted that construction is technically on schedule, Zahn chuckled and said, “But it’s going too slow for me.”

He’s hoping for a large grand-opening day.

“We want to see lots of people, we want to be busy,” Zahn said. “It depends on the weather. If we have good weather, we’ll have good crowds. We don’t want a white Christmas.”

Charlie Krout, one of the managing partners, said staffing is nearly complete.

“We still have some positions open,” Krout said, “But for the most part it’s pretty complete.”

Needed are a few daytime employees, and help on Sundays, he said.

About 35 percent of employees are high school students, Krout said. Employees are ready to go to work, he said.

“They’ve all been into different stores to do the training,” he said. “They’ve also watched videos and they’ve had hands-on training.”

Usually after working a couple of shifts, employees know what to do, and this seems to be especially so in Tonganoxie, Krout said.

“All of them that I’ve trained here have seemed to pick up on things exceptionally quick,” he said.

Krout, a managing partner in the Briley Group, which he said owns from 28 to 30 Sonics, said he will be working at the Tonganoxie Sonic.

“I will be here pretty much all the time,” Krout said. “I have a couple of assistants that I will be bringing with me and probably one that I’m hiring locally.”

Krout is predicting that business here will be brisk.

“I think it’s going to be a great store,” he said. “It’s been a great town so far. Everybody I’ve met here has really opened up their town for us.”