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Earlier this week, a district court judge ruled that a majority of the sealed documents pertaining to the Highwood Generating Station should be made public.

The City of Great Falls was preparing to release the sealed documents, but when Southern Montana Electric filed an appeal, those plans were put on hold.

City Attorney Jim Santoro says his office got to work immediately sorting through the boxes of documents when the district court decision came down earlier this week.

While the city is named as a defendant in the case, Santoro says it's not the city who is asking to reverse the decision, adding, "I just want to make it very clear. I've said all along it's not the city that's appealing this case. We worked diligently, we were going to work diligently this week to release the documents, but we're going to comply with the court order."

Santoro says he's hoping for some direction from the district judge within ten days, but until then, he says the process is at a stand-still.

(Thursday morning, March 11, 2010) Documents relating to the Highwood Generating Station could stay under lock and key after all, despite a ruling on Tuesday from a district judge that boxes of documents must be released to the public.

On Wednesday, Southern Montana Electric and the city of Great Falls appealed the decision.

The motion says that a stay or injunction is necessary to "preserve Southern Montana's rights to protect its documents, based on claims of trade secret."

The court ruling on Tuesday recognized trade secrets in a select number of documents, and the judge says those do not have to be released.

Other claims of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality were deemed invalid.

The fight over the documents has lasted three years.