WAPELLO, Iowa — Construction of a state-of-the-art building with flat-screen televisions, heated garage, 14-bed dormitory and a full-service kitchen has recently been completed in Wapello and will soon be open for business.

Though spending some time at this facility may sound appealing, visitors might change their minds when they learn that a night’s  stay there  also comes with steel toilets, cement flooring and 24-hour supervision.

A grand opening for the Louisa County Jail will be held from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, July 25, and the public is invited to take tours and ask questions. An opening ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. and refreshments will be available.

On Monday, much of the property from the old jail was being transported to the new location, the former Odessa Residential Center, 12365 County Road G56, about three miles north of Wapello.

“Dispatch should be working out of here starting today,” Louisa County Sheriff Curt Braby said Monday as he stood in a dispatch office triple the size of the office at the current jail at 503 Franklin St.

The new jail has 38 beds. The existing jail can hold only about 10 people at a time. The current jail has a history of being over capacity with 13 to 15 prisoners at a time. When more prisoners are taken in, the county has been forced to ship them to other county jails for a daily fee.

In 2005, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors began discussions for replacement of the jail. Funding for the new $3.2 million facility is coming from a 1-percent local option sales tax that was passed by voters during referendums in 2006 and 2007. Each town in the county had to pass the referendum and agree to give 50 percent of its tax proceeds to the county for 15 years to pay off the construction project. Braby said the jail completion is slightly under budget at about $3.19 million.

The jail will utilize the existing kitchen from the Residential Center and a cook will prepare food on site.

Other improvements include a control center operated by a touch screen system that allows for control of the entire facility, cameras and doors from one room.

An attached garage will allow deputies to transfer prisoners from within an  enclosed space. Once the subject is removed, he or she enters a secure area outside the booking room.

The prisoner can be placed in a secluded “drunk tank” upon entry,  “if they’re a real problem child,” Braby said.

Braby said the updates make the jail a safer place for the public, prisoners and the staff.

Prisoners will not need to be transported to court because they will be able to see the judge via video monitor.

If visitors come to the jail, prisoners can speak to them on monitors from the day room confines near their cell.

The recreation room is now indoors, making escape virtually impossible, unlike the fenced-in area at the existing facility.

“We’ve had two escapes from the yard in the past 30 years,” Braby said of the old recreation area, which is surrounded by chain-link fence. “That’s not going to happen here.”

Braby expects to start moving prisoners to the new jail the first week of August after his staff finishes training on jail operations.