There was a time when Everett’s Esteban Rivas would spend most of his morning and evening in a car commuting to a job far from Everett. That all changed when Encore came to town, and Rivas was one of the first employees hired for the resort casino to work in the IT Department. Now, with the resort open on Lower Broadway, he bikes to work in 20 minutes most days, and has enjoyed being part of the renaissance of his hometown, Everett. “It’s much better because I can wake up a little later,” he said. “I bike to work now and it’s an eight minute bike ride. My last job was 19 miles each way. It took an hour each way. This is completely different. I love how much the City is doing to create bike lanes. That’s uplifting the City…I love the bike lane because it’s so much better because I see the people stopped in traffic like I used to be and I whiz by. It saves a lot of time. I live off Carter Street and that can take 15 or 20 minutes just to get out by car.” Rivas, 29, grew up in Everett and attended public schools, being part of the first class in 2008 to graduate from the new Everett High School. He credits his teachers at the high school for encouraging him to get into web design, which propelled him to study and graduate from ITT Tech. After that, he had been working for the medical billing company that is more than an hour away. That’s when he was introduced to Encore. “I learned about Encore through all the stuff that was going on in Everett with the licensing and the vote,” he said. “It was the biggest thing in Everett at the time and I had to be a part of it, so I applied.” Nowadays, Rivas is one of many workers who goes about fixing and maintaining the computer systems at the resort – which are very sophisticated and complex. His day can include setting up a point of sale on the South Lawn for a special event, reconfiguring a kiosk on the gaming floor, or even providing tech support to someone working in the offices. However, Rivas is one of the longest-serving employees for Encore, having been hired in the IT Department in December 2015 – even before the groundbreaking. He has spent most of his time working at the office in Station Landing, but this summer transitioned to the resort on Lower Broadway. “I was here before they broke ground and all the construction,” he said. “They like to say that I’m older than the dirt…When I started there were only 12 people or so. It was only myself and the chief information officer. It was just us two for a long time.” Now, with a full department working alongside him, he said he is still probably the best known IT guy on the resort. “It’s been good because I’ve had long relationships with everyone,” he said. “When they need something fixed on their computer, they’ll still ask for me because they’ve known me for so long.” That has given him a very unique perspective on the change that has come on the site he remembers as being overgrown and polluted when growing up in Everett. He said he is very excited for the future of Encore and Everett. “I feel like I take pride coming here every day,” he said. “It’s an up and coming city and I think it’s only going to get better and more exciting. There are more jobs, better transportation and an uplifting of the Lower Broadway area…I take pride in knowing that I helped to open it up.”