Work on a new jail may start in summer.

Byline: Lee Shearer

May 4--LEXINGTON -- Construction could begin on a new Oglethorpe County jail this summer, as soon as the Oglethorpe County Commission lines up financing for the project.

The latest estimate sets the cost of the 64-bed jail at about $5 million, Oglethorpe County Engineer Ken Whitehead told the Oglethorpe County Commission at a non-voting meeting Monday. The estimate does not include land costs, since the jail is to be built on a site the county already owns on Buddy Faust Road, about three miles outside Lexington.

Part of the building would house a work-release program, where up to 20 prisoners could be housed, leaving the facility …